Application integration with a digital assistant

ABSTRACT

Systems and processes for application integration with a digital assistant are provided. In accordance with one example, a method includes, at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory, receiving a natural-language user input; identifying, with the one or more processors, an intent object of a set of intent objects and a parameter associated with the intent, where the intent object and the parameter are derived from the natural-language user input. The method further includes identifying a software application associated with the intent object of the set of intent objects; and providing the intent object and the parameter to the software application.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/737,100 entitled “APPLICATION INTEGRATION WITH A DIGITAL ASSISTANT”,filed on Jan. 8, 2020 which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.No. 16/207,901 entitled “APPLICATION INTEGRATION WITH A DIGITALASSISTANT”, filed on Dec. 3, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 15/269,728, “APPLICATION INTEGRATION WITH A DIGITALASSISTANT,” filed on Sep. 19, 2016, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/348,929, “APPLICATIONINTEGRATION WITH A DIGITAL ASSISTANT,” filed on Jun. 11, 2016, all ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for allpurposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to interfacing withapplications, and more specifically to techniques for applicationintegration with a digital assistant.

BACKGROUND

Digital assistants can help a user perform various functions on a userdevice. For example, digital assistants can set alarms, provide weatherupdates, and perform searches both locally and on the Internet, allwhile providing a natural-language interface to a user. Existing digitalassistants, however, cannot effectively integrate with applications,such as those locally stored on the user device, and in particular,third-party applications. Accordingly, existing digital assistantscannot provide a natural-language interface with such applications.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Example methods are disclosed herein. An example method includes, at anelectronic device having one or more processors, receiving anatural-language user input, and identifying, with the one or moreprocessors, an intent of a set of intents and a parameter associatedwith the intent, where the intent and the parameter are derived from thenatural-language user input. The method further includes identifying asoftware application associated with the intent of the set of intentsand providing the intent and the parameter to the software application.

An example method includes, at one or more electronic devices, eachhaving one or more processors, receiving a natural-language user input;determining, based on the natural-language user input, an intent of aset of intents and a parameter associated with the intent; identifying asoftware application based on at least one of the intent or theparameter; and providing the intent and the parameter to the softwareapplication.

An example method includes, at one or more electronic devices, eachhaving one or more processors, receiving a natural-language user input;identifying, based on the natural-language user input, an intent of aset of an intents and a parameter associated with the intent; anddetermining, based on at least one of the intent or the parameter,whether a task corresponding to the intent can be fulfilled. The methodfurther includes, in accordance with a determination that the taskcorresponding to the intent can be fulfilled, providing the intent andthe parameter to a software application associated with the intent, and,in accordance with a determination that the task corresponding to theintent cannot be fulfilled, providing a list of one or more softwareapplications associated with the intent.

An example method includes, at a first electronic device having one ormore processors, receiving a natural-language user input, where thenatural-language user input is indicative of an intent of a set ofintents; providing the natural-language user input to a secondelectronic device; and receiving, from the second electronic device, anindication that a software application associated with the intent is notlocated on the first electronic device. The method further includes,responsive to the notification, obtaining the list of applicationsassociated with the intent; displaying, with a touch-sensitive displayof the first electronic device, the list of applications associated withthe intent in a user interface; receiving a user input indicative of aselection of an application of the list of applications; and providingthe intent of the set of intents to the application.

Example non-transitory computer-readable media are disclosed herein. Anexample non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one ormore programs. The one or more programs comprise instructions, whichwhen executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, causethe electronic device to receive a natural-language user input;identify, with the one or more processors, an intent of a set of intentsand a parameter associated with the intent, wherein the intent and theparameter are derived from the natural-language user input; identify asoftware application associated with the intent of the set of intents;and provide the intent and the parameter to the software application.

Example non-transitory computer-readable storage media store one or moreprograms. The one or more programs comprise instructions, which whenexecuted by one or more processors of one or more electronic devices,cause the one or more electronic devices to receive a natural-languageuser input; determine, based on the natural-language user input, anintent of a set of intents and a parameter associated with the intent;identify a software application based on at least one of the intent orthe parameter; and provide the intent and the parameter to the softwareapplication.

Example non-transitory computer-readable storage media store one or moreprograms. The one or more programs comprise instructions, which whenexecuted by one or more processors of one or more electronic devices,cause the one or more electronic devices to receive a natural-languageuser input; identify, based on the natural-language user input, anintent of a set of an intents and a parameter associated with theintent; determine, based on at least one of the intent or the parameter,whether a task corresponding to the intent can be fulfilled; inaccordance with a determination that the task corresponding to theintent can be fulfilled, provide the intent and the parameter to asoftware application associated with the intent; and in accordance witha determination that the task corresponding to the intent cannot befulfilled, provide a list of one or more software applicationsassociated with the intent.

An example non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one ormore programs. The one or more programs comprise instructions, whichwhen executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, causethe electronic device to receive a natural-language user input, whereinthe natural-language user input is indicative of an intent of a set ofintents; provide the natural-language user input to a second electronicdevice; receive, from the second electronic device, an indication that asoftware application associated with the intent is not located on thefirst electronic device; responsive to the notification, obtain the listof applications associated with the intent; display, with atouch-sensitive display of the first electronic device, the list ofapplications associated with the intent in a user interface; receive auser input indicative of a selection of an application of the list ofapplications; and provide the intent of the set of intents to theapplication.

Example electronic devices and systems are disclosed herein. An exampleelectronic device comprises one or more processors; a memory; and one ormore programs, where the one or more programs are stored in the memoryand configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one ormore programs including instructions for receiving a natural-languageuser input; identifying, with the one or more processors, an intent of aset of intents and a parameter associated with the intent, wherein theintent and the parameter are derived from the natural-language userinput; identifying a software application associated with the intent ofthe set of intents; and providing the intent and the parameter to thesoftware application.

An example system includes one or more processors of one or moreelectronic devices; one or more memories of the one or more electronicdevices; and one or more programs, where the one or more programs arestored in the one or more memories and configured to be executed by theone or more processors, the one or more programs including instructionsfor receiving a natural-language user input; determining, based on thenatural-language user input, an intent of a set of intents and aparameter associated with the intent; identifying a software applicationbased on at least one of the intent or the parameter; and providing theintent and the parameter to the software application.

An example system includes one or more processors of one or moreelectronic devices; one or more memories of the one or more electronicdevices; and one or more programs, where the one or more programs arestored in the one or more memories and configured to be executed by theone or more processors, the one or more programs including instructionsfor receiving a natural-language user input; identifying, based on thenatural-language user input, an intent of a set of an intents and aparameter associated with the intent; determining, based on at least oneof the intent or the parameter, whether a task corresponding to theintent can be fulfilled; in accordance with a determination that thetask corresponding to the intent can be fulfilled, providing the intentand the parameter to a software application associated with the intent;and in accordance with a determination that the task corresponding tothe intent cannot be fulfilled, providing a list of one or more softwareapplications associated with the intent.

An example electronic device comprises one or more processors; a memory;and one or more programs, where the one or more programs are stored inthe memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors,the one or more programs including instructions for receiving anatural-language user input, wherein the natural-language user input isindicative of an intent of a set of intents; providing thenatural-language user input to a second electronic device; receiving,from the second electronic device, an indication that a softwareapplication associated with the intent is not located on the firstelectronic device; responsive to the notification, obtaining the list ofapplications associated with the intent; displaying, with atouch-sensitive display of the first electronic device, the list ofapplications associated with the intent in a user interface; receiving auser input indicative of a selection of an application of the list ofapplications; and providing the intent of the set of intents to theapplication.

An example electronic device comprises means for receiving anatural-language user input; means for identifying an intent of a set ofintents and a parameter associated with the intent, where the intent andthe parameter are derived from the natural-language user input; meansfor identifying a software application associated with the intent of theset of intents; and means for providing the intent and the parameter tothe software application.

An example system comprises means for receiving a natural-language userinput; means for determining, based on the natural-language user input,an intent of a set of intents and a parameter associated with theintent; means for identifying a software application based on at leastone of the intent or the parameter; and means for providing the intentand the parameter to the software application.

An example system comprises means for receiving a natural-language userinput; means for identifying, based on the natural-language user input,an intent of a set of an intents and a parameter associated with theintent; means for determining, based on at least one of the intent orthe parameter, whether a task corresponding to the intent can befulfilled; means for, in accordance with a determination that the taskcorresponding to the intent can be fulfilled, providing the intent andthe parameter to a software application associated with the intent; andmeans for, in accordance with a determination that the taskcorresponding to the intent cannot be fulfilled, providing a list of oneor more software applications associated with the intent.

An example electronic device includes means for receiving anatural-language user input, wherein the natural-language user input isindicative of an intent of a set of intents; means for providing thenatural-language user input to a second electronic device; means forreceiving, from the second electronic device, an indication that asoftware application associated with the intent is not located on thefirst electronic device; means for, responsive to the notification,obtaining the list of applications associated with the intent; means fordisplaying, with a touch-sensitive display of the first electronicdevice, the list of applications associated with the intent in a userinterface; means for receiving a user input indicative of a selection ofan application of the list of applications; and means for providing theintent of the set of intents to the application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

For a better understanding of the various described embodiments,reference should be made to the Detailed Description below, inconjunction with the following drawings in which like reference numeralsrefer to corresponding parts throughout the figures.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system and environment forimplementing a digital assistant according to various examples.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating a portable multifunction deviceimplementing the client-side portion of a digital assistant inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for eventhandling according to various examples.

FIG. 3 illustrates a portable multifunction device implementing theclient-side portion of a digital assistant according to variousexamples.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary multifunction device with adisplay and a touch-sensitive surface according to various examples.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary user interface for a menu ofapplications on a portable multifunction device according to variousexamples.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary user interface for a multifunctiondevice with a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the displayaccording to various examples.

FIG. 6A illustrates a personal electronic device according to variousexamples.

FIG. 6B is a block diagram illustrating a personal electronic deviceaccording to various examples.

FIG. 7A is a block diagram illustrating a digital assistant system or aserver portion thereof according to various examples.

FIG. 7B illustrates the functions of the digital assistant shown in FIG.7A according to various examples.

FIG. 7C illustrates a portion of an ontology according to variousexamples.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram of a process for operating a digitalassistant in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of a process for operating a digitalassistant in accordance with some embodiments.

FIGS. 10A-C illustrate exemplary user interfaces of an electronic devicein accordance with some embodiments.

FIGS. 10D-E illustrate exemplary data flows of a digital assistantsystem in accordance with some embodiments.

FIGS. 11-14 illustrate functional block diagram of electronic devices inaccordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of the disclosure and embodiments,reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which it is shown byway of illustration of specific embodiments that can be practiced. It isto be understood that other embodiments and examples can be practicedand changes can be made without departing from the scope of thedisclosure.

Although the following description uses terms “first,” “second,” etc. todescribe various elements, these elements should not be limited by theterms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element fromanother. For example, a first input could be termed a second input, and,similarly, a second input could be termed a first input, withoutdeparting from the scope of the various described examples. The firstinput and the second input can both be outputs and, in some cases, canbe separate and different inputs.

The terminology used in the description of the various describedexamples herein is for the purpose of describing particular examplesonly and is not intended to be limiting. As used in the description ofthe various described examples and the appended claims, the singularforms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms aswell, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also beunderstood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to andencompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of theassociated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms“includes,” “including,” “comprises,” and/or “comprising,” when used inthis specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers,steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps,operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

The term “if” may be construed to mean “when” or “upon” or “in responseto determining” or “in response to detecting,” depending on the context.Similarly, the phrase “if it is determined” or “if [a stated conditionor event] is detected” may be construed to mean “upon determining” or“in response to determining” or “upon detecting [the stated condition orevent]” or “in response to detecting [the stated condition or event],”depending on the context.

1. System and Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of system 100 according to variousexamples. In some examples, system 100 can implement a digitalassistant. The terms “digital assistant,” “virtual assistant,”“intelligent automated assistant,” or “automatic digital assistant” canrefer to any information processing system that interprets naturallanguage input in spoken and/or textual form to infer user intent, andperforms actions (e.g., tasks) based on the inferred user intent. Forexample, to act on an inferred user intent, the system can perform oneor more of the following: identifying a task flow with steps andparameters designed to accomplish the inferred user intent, inputtingspecific requirements from the inferred user intent into the task flow;executing the task flow by invoking programs, methods, services, APIs,or the like; and generating output responses to the user in an audible(e.g., speech) and/or visual form.

Specifically, a digital assistant can be capable of accepting a userrequest at least partially in the form of a natural language command,request, statement, narrative, and/or inquiry. Typically, the userrequest can seek either an informational answer or performance of a taskby the digital assistant. A satisfactory response to the user requestcan be a provision of the requested informational answer, a performanceof the requested task, or a combination of the two. For example, a usercan ask the digital assistant a question, such as “Where am I rightnow?” Based on the user's current location, the digital assistant cananswer, “You are in Central Park near the west gate.” The user can alsorequest the performance of a task, for example, “Please invite myfriends to my girlfriend's birthday party next week.” In response, thedigital assistant can acknowledge the request by saying “Yes, rightaway,” and then send a suitable calendar invite on behalf of the user toeach of the user's friends listed in the user's electronic address book.During performance of a requested task, the digital assistant cansometimes interact with the user in a continuous dialogue involvingmultiple exchanges of information over an extended period of time. Thereare numerous other ways of interacting with a digital assistant torequest information or performance of various tasks. In addition toproviding verbal responses and taking programmed actions, the digitalassistant can also provide responses in other visual or audio forms,e.g., as text, alerts, music, videos, animations, etc.

As shown in FIG. 1, in some examples, a digital assistant can beimplemented according to a client-server model. The digital assistantcan include client-side portion 102 (hereafter “DA client 102”) executedon user device 104 and server-side portion 106 (hereafter “DA server106”) executed on server system 108. DA client 102 can communicate withDA server 106 through one or more networks 110. DA client 102 canprovide client-side functionalities such as user-facing input and outputprocessing and communication with DA server 106. DA server 106 canprovide server-side functionalities for any number of DA clients 102each residing on a respective user device 104.

In some examples, DA server 106 can include client-facing I/O interface112, one or more processing modules 114, data and models 116, and I/Ointerface to external services 118. The client-facing I/O interface 112can facilitate the client-facing input and output processing for DAserver 106. One or more processing modules 114 can utilize data andmodels 116 to process speech input and determine the user's intent basedon natural language input. Further, one or more processing modules 114perform task execution based on inferred user intent. In some examples,DA server 106 can communicate with external services 120 throughnetwork(s) 110 for task completion or information acquisition. I/Ointerface to external services 118 can facilitate such communications.

User device 104 can be any suitable electronic device. For example, userdevices can be a portable multifunctional device (e.g., device 200,described below with reference to FIG. 2A), a multifunctional device(e.g., device 400, described below with reference to FIG. 4), or apersonal electronic device (e.g., device 600, described below withreference to FIG. 6A-B.) A portable multifunctional device can be, forexample, a mobile telephone that also contains other functions, such asPDA and/or music player functions. Specific examples of portablemultifunction devices can include the iPhone®, iPod Touch®, and iPad®devices from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Other examples of portablemultifunction devices can include, without limitation, laptop or tabletcomputers. Further, in some examples, user device 104 can be anon-portable multifunctional device. In particular, user device 104 canbe a desktop computer, a game console, a television, or a televisionset-top box. In some examples, user device 104 can include atouch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch screen displays and/or touchpads).Further, user device 104 can optionally include one or more otherphysical user-interface devices, such as a physical keyboard, a mouse,and/or a joystick. Various examples of electronic devices, such asmultifunctional devices, are described below in greater detail.

Examples of communication network(s) 110 can include local area networks(LAN) and wide area networks (WAN), e.g., the Internet. Communicationnetwork(s) 110 can be implemented using any known network protocol,including various wired or wireless protocols, such as, for example,Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), codedivision multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA),Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, or anyother suitable communication protocol.

Server system 108 can be implemented on one or more standalone dataprocessing apparatus or a distributed network of computers. In someexamples, server system 108 can also employ various virtual devicesand/or services of third-party service providers (e.g., third-partycloud service providers) to provide the underlying computing resourcesand/or infrastructure resources of server system 108.

In some examples, user device 104 can communicate with DA server 106 viasecond user device 122. Second user device 122 can be similar oridentical to user device 104. For example, second user device 122 can besimilar to devices 200, 400, or 600 described below with reference toFIGS. 2A, 4, and 6A-B. User device 104 can be configured tocommunicatively couple to second user device 122 via a directcommunication connection, such as Bluetooth, NFC, BTLE, or the like, orvia a wired or wireless network, such as a local Wi-Fi network. In someexamples, second user device 122 can be configured to act as a proxybetween user device 104 and DA server 106. For example, DA client 102 ofuser device 104 can be configured to transmit information (e.g., a userrequest received at user device 104) to DA server 106 via second userdevice 122. DA server 106 can process the information and returnrelevant data (e.g., data content responsive to the user request) touser device 104 via second user device 122.

In some examples, user device 104 can be configured to communicateabbreviated requests for data to second user device 122 to reduce theamount of information transmitted from user device 104. Second userdevice 122 can be configured to determine supplemental information toadd to the abbreviated request to generate a complete request totransmit to DA server 106. This system architecture can advantageouslyallow user device 104 having limited communication capabilities and/orlimited battery power (e.g., a watch or a similar compact electronicdevice) to access services provided by DA server 106 by using seconduser device 122, having greater communication capabilities and/orbattery power (e.g., a mobile phone, laptop computer, tablet computer,or the like), as a proxy to DA server 106. While only two user devices104 and 122 are shown in FIG. 1, it should be appreciated that system100 can include any number and type of user devices configured in thisproxy configuration to communicate with DA server system 106.

Although the digital assistant shown in FIG. 1 can include both aclient-side portion (e.g., DA client 102) and a server-side portion(e.g., DA server 106), in some examples, the functions of a digitalassistant can be implemented as a standalone application installed on auser device. In addition, the divisions of functionalities between theclient and server portions of the digital assistant can vary indifferent implementations. For instance, in some examples, the DA clientcan be a thin-client that provides only user-facing input and outputprocessing functions, and delegates all other functionalities of thedigital assistant to a backend server.

2. Electronic Devices

Attention is now directed toward embodiments of electronic devices forimplementing the client-side portion of a digital assistant. FIG. 2A isa block diagram illustrating portable multifunction device 200 withtouch-sensitive display system 212 in accordance with some embodiments.Touch-sensitive display 212 is sometimes called a “touch screen” forconvenience and is sometimes known as or called a “touch-sensitivedisplay system.” Device 200 includes memory 202 (which optionallyincludes one or more computer-readable storage mediums), memorycontroller 222, one or more processing units (CPUs) 220, peripheralsinterface 218, RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211,microphone 213, input/output (I/O) subsystem 206, other input controldevices 216, and external port 224. Device 200 optionally includes oneor more optical sensors 264. Device 200 optionally includes one or morecontact intensity sensors 265 for detecting intensity of contacts ondevice 200 (e.g., a touch-sensitive surface such as touch-sensitivedisplay system 212 of device 200). Device 200 optionally includes one ormore tactile output generators 267 for generating tactile outputs ondevice 200 (e.g., generating tactile outputs on a touch-sensitivesurface such as touch-sensitive display system 212 of device 200 ortouchpad 455 of device 400). These components optionally communicateover one or more communication buses or signal lines 203.

As used in the specification and claims, the term “intensity” of acontact on a touch-sensitive surface refers to the force or pressure(force per unit area) of a contact (e.g., a finger contact) on thetouch-sensitive surface, or to a substitute (proxy) for the force orpressure of a contact on the touch-sensitive surface. The intensity of acontact has a range of values that includes at least four distinctvalues and more typically includes hundreds of distinct values (e.g., atleast 256). Intensity of a contact is, optionally, determined (ormeasured) using various approaches and various sensors or combinationsof sensors. For example, one or more force sensors underneath oradjacent to the touch-sensitive surface are, optionally, used to measureforce at various points on the touch-sensitive surface. In someimplementations, force measurements from multiple force sensors arecombined (e.g., a weighted average) to determine an estimated force of acontact. Similarly, a pressure-sensitive tip of a stylus is, optionally,used to determine a pressure of the stylus on the touch-sensitivesurface. Alternatively, the size of the contact area detected on thetouch-sensitive surface and/or changes thereto, the capacitance of thetouch-sensitive surface proximate to the contact and/or changes thereto,and/or the resistance of the touch-sensitive surface proximate to thecontact and/or changes thereto are, optionally, used as a substitute forthe force or pressure of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface. Insome implementations, the substitute measurements for contact force orpressure are used directly to determine whether an intensity thresholdhas been exceeded (e.g., the intensity threshold is described in unitscorresponding to the substitute measurements). In some implementations,the substitute measurements for contact force or pressure are convertedto an estimated force or pressure, and the estimated force or pressureis used to determine whether an intensity threshold has been exceeded(e.g., the intensity threshold is a pressure threshold measured in unitsof pressure). Using the intensity of a contact as an attribute of a userinput allows for user access to additional device functionality that mayotherwise not be accessible by the user on a reduced-size device withlimited real estate for displaying affordances (e.g., on atouch-sensitive display) and/or receiving user input (e.g., via atouch-sensitive display, a touch-sensitive surface, or aphysical/mechanical control such as a knob or a button).

As used in the specification and claims, the term “tactile output”refers to physical displacement of a device relative to a previousposition of the device, physical displacement of a component (e.g., atouch-sensitive surface) of a device relative to another component(e.g., housing) of the device, or displacement of the component relativeto a center of mass of the device that will be detected by a user withthe user's sense of touch. For example, in situations where the deviceor the component of the device is in contact with a surface of a userthat is sensitive to touch (e.g., a finger, palm, or other part of auser's hand), the tactile output generated by the physical displacementwill be interpreted by the user as a tactile sensation corresponding toa perceived change in physical characteristics of the device or thecomponent of the device. For example, movement of a touch-sensitivesurface (e.g., a touch-sensitive display or trackpad) is, optionally,interpreted by the user as a “down click” or “up click” of a physicalactuator button. In some cases, a user will feel a tactile sensationsuch as an “down click” or “up click” even when there is no movement ofa physical actuator button associated with the touch-sensitive surfacethat is physically pressed (e.g., displaced) by the user's movements. Asanother example, movement of the touch-sensitive surface is, optionally,interpreted or sensed by the user as “roughness” of the touch-sensitivesurface, even when there is no change in smoothness of thetouch-sensitive surface. While such interpretations of touch by a userwill be subject to the individualized sensory perceptions of the user,there are many sensory perceptions of touch that are common to a largemajority of users. Thus, when a tactile output is described ascorresponding to a particular sensory perception of a user (e.g., an “upclick,” a “down click,” “roughness”), unless otherwise stated, thegenerated tactile output corresponds to physical displacement of thedevice or a component thereof that will generate the described sensoryperception for a typical (or average) user.

It should be appreciated that device 200 is only one example of aportable multifunction device, and that device 200 optionally has moreor fewer components than shown, optionally combines two or morecomponents, or optionally has a different configuration or arrangementof the components. The various components shown in FIG. 2A areimplemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both hardware andsoftware, including one or more signal processing and/orapplication-specific integrated circuits.

Memory 202 may include one or more computer-readable storage mediums.The computer-readable storage mediums may be tangible andnon-transitory. Memory 202 may include high-speed random access memoryand may also include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magneticdisk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatilesolid-state memory devices. Memory controller 222 may control access tomemory 202 by other components of device 200.

In some examples, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofmemory 202 can be used to store instructions (e.g., for performingaspects of process 1100, described below) for use by or in connectionwith an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as acomputer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system thatcan fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In other examples,the instructions (e.g., for performing aspects of process 1100,described below) can be stored on a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium (not shown) of the server system 108 or can be dividedbetween the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of memory202 and the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of serversystem 108. In the context of this document, a “non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium” can be any medium that can contain orstore the program for use by or in connection with the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device.

Peripherals interface 218 can be used to couple input and outputperipherals of the device to CPU 220 and memory 202. The one or moreprocessors 220 run or execute various software programs and/or sets ofinstructions stored in memory 202 to perform various functions fordevice 200 and to process data. In some embodiments, peripheralsinterface 218, CPU 220, and memory controller 222 may be implemented ona single chip, such as chip 204. In some other embodiments, they may beimplemented on separate chips.

RF (radio frequency) circuitry 208 receives and sends RF signals, alsocalled electromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 converts electricalsignals to/from electromagnetic signals and communicates withcommunications networks and other communications devices via theelectromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 optionally includes well-knowncircuitry for performing these functions, including but not limited toan antenna system, an RF transceiver, one or more amplifiers, a tuner,one or more oscillators, a digital signal processor, a CODEC chipset, asubscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory, and so forth. RFcircuitry 208 optionally communicates with networks, such as theInternet, also referred to as the World Wide Web (WWW), an intranetand/or a wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network, awireless local area network (LAN) and/or a metropolitan area network(MAN), and other devices by wireless communication. The RF circuitry 208optionally includes well-known circuitry for detecting near fieldcommunication (NFC) fields, such as by a short-range communicationradio. The wireless communication optionally uses any of a plurality ofcommunications standards, protocols, and technologies, including but notlimited to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced DataGSM Environment (EDGE), high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA),high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), Evolution, Data-Only (EV-DO),HSPA, HSPA+, Dual-Cell HSPA (DC-HSPDA), long term evolution (LTE), nearfield communication (NFC), wideband code division multiple access(W-CDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multipleaccess (TDMA), Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), Wireless Fidelity(Wi-Fi) (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n,and/or IEEE 802.11ac), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, aprotocol for e mail (e.g., Internet message access protocol (IMAP)and/or post office protocol (POP)), instant messaging (e.g., extensiblemessaging and presence protocol (XMPP), Session Initiation Protocol forInstant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), InstantMessaging and Presence Service (IMPS)), and/or Short Message Service(SMS), or any other suitable communication protocol, includingcommunication protocols not yet developed as of the filing date of thisdocument.

Audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, and microphone 213 provide an audiointerface between a user and device 200. Audio circuitry 210 receivesaudio data from peripherals interface 218, converts the audio data to anelectrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to speaker 211.Speaker 211 converts the electrical signal to human-audible sound waves.Audio circuitry 210 also receives electrical signals converted bymicrophone 213 from sound waves. Audio circuitry 210 converts theelectrical signal to audio data and transmits the audio data toperipherals interface 218 for processing. Audio data may be retrievedfrom and/or transmitted to memory 202 and/or RF circuitry 208 byperipherals interface 218. In some embodiments, audio circuitry 210 alsoincludes a headset jack (e.g., 312, FIG. 3). The headset jack providesan interface between audio circuitry 210 and removable audioinput/output peripherals, such as output-only headphones or a headsetwith both output (e.g., a headphone for one or both ears) and input(e.g., a microphone).

I/O subsystem 206 couples input/output peripherals on device 200, suchas touch screen 212 and other input control devices 216, to peripheralsinterface 218. I/O subsystem 206 optionally includes display controller256, optical sensor controller 258, intensity sensor controller 259,haptic feedback controller 261, and one or more input controllers 260for other input or control devices. The one or more input controllers260 receive/send electrical signals from/to other input control devices216. The other input control devices 216 optionally include physicalbuttons (e.g., push buttons, rocker buttons, etc.), dials, sliderswitches, joysticks, click wheels, and so forth. In some alternateembodiments, input controller(s) 260 are, optionally, coupled to any (ornone) of the following: a keyboard, an infrared port, a USB port, and apointer device such as a mouse. The one or more buttons (e.g., 308, FIG.3) optionally include an up/down button for volume control of speaker211 and/or microphone 213. The one or more buttons optionally include apush button (e.g., 306, FIG. 3).

A quick press of the push button may disengage a lock of touch screen212 or begin a process that uses gestures on the touch screen to unlockthe device, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/322,549,“Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image,” filedDec. 23, 2005, U.S. Pat. No. 7,657,849, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety. A longer press of the push button (e.g., 306)may turn power to device 200 on or off. The user may be able tocustomize a functionality of one or more of the buttons. Touch screen212 is used to implement virtual or soft buttons and one or more softkeyboards.

Touch-sensitive display 212 provides an input interface and an outputinterface between the device and a user. Display controller 256 receivesand/or sends electrical signals from/to touch screen 212. Touch screen212 displays visual output to the user. The visual output may includegraphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof (collectivelytermed “graphics”). In some embodiments, some or all of the visualoutput may correspond to user-interface objects.

Touch screen 212 has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor, or set ofsensors that accepts input from the user based on haptic and/or tactilecontact. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 (along with anyassociated modules and/or sets of instructions in memory 202) detectcontact (and any movement or breaking of the contact) on touch screen212 and convert the detected contact into interaction withuser-interface objects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages,or images) that are displayed on touch screen 212. In an exemplaryembodiment, a point of contact between touch screen 212 and the usercorresponds to a finger of the user.

Touch screen 212 may use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, LPD(light emitting polymer display) technology, or LED (light emittingdiode) technology, although other display technologies may be used inother embodiments. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 maydetect contact and any movement or breaking thereof using any of aplurality of touch sensing technologies now known or later developed,including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, andsurface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensorarrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contactwith touch screen 212. In an exemplary embodiment, projected mutualcapacitance sensing technology is used, such as that found in theiPhone® and iPod Touch® from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.

A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of touch screen 212 may beanalogous to the multi-touch sensitive touchpads described in thefollowing U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,846 (Westerman et al.), U.S. Pat. No.6,570,557 (Westerman et al.), and/or U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,932(Westerman), and/or U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0015024A1, each ofwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. However,touch screen 212 displays visual output from device 200, whereastouch-sensitive touchpads do not provide visual output.

A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of touch screen 212 may beas described in the following applications: (1) U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/381,313, “Multipoint Touch Surface Controller,” filed May 2,2006; (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/840,862, “MultipointTouchscreen,” filed May 6, 2004; (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/903,964, “Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jul. 30,2004; (4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/048,264, “Gestures ForTouch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 31, 2005; (5) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/038,590, “Mode-Based Graphical User InterfacesFor Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 18, 2005; (6) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/228,758, “Virtual Input Device Placement On ATouch Screen User Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (7) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/228,700, “Operation Of A Computer With A TouchScreen Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (8) U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/228,737, “Activating Virtual Keys Of A Touch-Screen VirtualKeyboard,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; and (9) U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/367,749, “Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device,” filed Mar. 3, 2006. Allof these applications are incorporated by reference herein in theirentirety.

Touch screen 212 may have a video resolution in excess of 100 dpi. Insome embodiments, the touch screen has a video resolution ofapproximately 160 dpi. The user may make contact with touch screen 212using any suitable object or appendage, such as a stylus, a finger, andso forth. In some embodiments, the user interface is designed to workprimarily with finger-based contacts and gestures, which can be lessprecise than stylus-based input due to the larger area of contact of afinger on the touch screen. In some embodiments, the device translatesthe rough finger-based input into a precise pointer/cursor position orcommand for performing the actions desired by the user.

In some embodiments, in addition to the touch screen, device 200 mayinclude a touchpad (not shown) for activating or deactivating particularfunctions. In some embodiments, the touchpad is a touch-sensitive areaof the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visualoutput. The touchpad may be a touch-sensitive surface that is separatefrom touch screen 212 or an extension of the touch-sensitive surfaceformed by the touch screen.

Device 200 also includes power system 262 for powering the variouscomponents. Power system 262 may include a power management system, oneor more power sources (e.g., battery, alternating current (AC)), arecharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converteror inverter, a power status indicator (e.g., a light-emitting diode(LED)) and any other components associated with the generation,management and distribution of power in portable devices.

Device 200 may also include one or more optical sensors 264. FIG. 2Ashows an optical sensor coupled to optical sensor controller 258 in I/Osubsystem 206. Optical sensor 264 may include charge-coupled device(CCD) or complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)phototransistors. Optical sensor 264 receives light from theenvironment, projected through one or more lenses, and converts thelight to data representing an image. In conjunction with imaging module243 (also called a camera module), optical sensor 264 may capture stillimages or video. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located onthe back of device 200, opposite touch screen display 212 on the frontof the device so that the touch screen display may be used as aviewfinder for still and/or video image acquisition. In someembodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device sothat the user's image may be obtained for video conferencing while theuser views the other video conference participants on the touch screendisplay. In some embodiments, the position of optical sensor 264 can bechanged by the user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in thedevice housing) so that a single optical sensor 264 may be used alongwith the touch screen display for both video conferencing and stilland/or video image acquisition.

Device 200 optionally also includes one or more contact intensitysensors 265. FIG. 2A shows a contact intensity sensor coupled tointensity sensor controller 259 in I/O subsystem 206. Contact intensitysensor 265 optionally includes one or more piezoresistive strain gauges,capacitive force sensors, electric force sensors, piezoelectric forcesensors, optical force sensors, capacitive touch-sensitive surfaces, orother intensity sensors (e.g., sensors used to measure the force (orpressure) of a contact on a touch-sensitive surface). Contact intensitysensor 265 receives contact intensity information (e.g., pressureinformation or a proxy for pressure information) from the environment.In some embodiments, at least one contact intensity sensor is collocatedwith, or proximate to, a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch-sensitivedisplay system 212). In some embodiments, at least one contact intensitysensor is located on the back of device 200, opposite touch screendisplay 212, which is located on the front of device 200.

Device 200 may also include one or more proximity sensors 266. FIG. 2Ashows proximity sensor 266 coupled to peripherals interface 218.Alternately, proximity sensor 266 may be coupled to input controller 260in I/O subsystem 206. Proximity sensor 266 may perform as described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/241,839, “Proximity Detector InHandheld Device”; Ser. No. 11/240,788, “Proximity Detector In HandheldDevice”; Ser. No. 11/620,702, “Using Ambient Light Sensor To AugmentProximity Sensor Output”; Ser. No. 11/586,862, “Automated Response ToAnd Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices”; and Ser. No.11/638,251, “Methods And Systems For Automatic Configuration OfPeripherals,” which are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety. In some embodiments, the proximity sensor turns off anddisables touch screen 212 when the multifunction device is placed nearthe user's ear (e.g., when the user is making a phone call).

Device 200 optionally also includes one or more tactile outputgenerators 267. FIG. 2A shows a tactile output generator coupled tohaptic feedback controller 261 in I/O subsystem 206. Tactile outputgenerator 267 optionally includes one or more electroacoustic devicessuch as speakers or other audio components and/or electromechanicaldevices that convert energy into linear motion such as a motor,solenoid, electroactive polymer, piezoelectric actuator, electrostaticactuator, or other tactile output generating component (e.g., acomponent that converts electrical signals into tactile outputs on thedevice). Contact intensity sensor 265 receives tactile feedbackgeneration instructions from haptic feedback module 233 and generatestactile outputs on device 200 that are capable of being sensed by a userof device 200. In some embodiments, at least one tactile outputgenerator is collocated with, or proximate to, a touch-sensitive surface(e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212) and, optionally, generates atactile output by moving the touch-sensitive surface vertically (e.g.,in/out of a surface of device 200) or laterally (e.g., back and forth inthe same plane as a surface of device 200). In some embodiments, atleast one tactile output generator sensor is located on the back ofdevice 200, opposite touch screen display 212, which is located on thefront of device 200.

Device 200 may also include one or more accelerometers 268. FIG. 2Ashows accelerometer 268 coupled to peripherals interface 218.Alternately, accelerometer 268 may be coupled to an input controller 260in I/O subsystem 206. Accelerometer 268 may perform as described in U.S.Patent Publication No. 20050190059, “Acceleration-based Theft DetectionSystem for Portable Electronic Devices,” and U.S. Patent Publication No.20060017692, “Methods And Apparatuses For Operating A Portable DeviceBased On An Accelerometer,” both of which are incorporated by referenceherein in their entirety. In some embodiments, information is displayedon the touch screen display in a portrait view or a landscape view basedon an analysis of data received from the one or more accelerometers.Device 200 optionally includes, in addition to accelerometer(s) 268, amagnetometer (not shown) and a GPS (or GLONASS or other globalnavigation system) receiver (not shown) for obtaining informationconcerning the location and orientation (e.g., portrait or landscape) ofdevice 200.

In some embodiments, the software components stored in memory 202include operating system 226, communication module (or set ofinstructions) 228, contact/motion module (or set of instructions) 230,graphics module (or set of instructions) 232, text input module (or setof instructions) 234, Global Positioning System (GPS) module (or set ofinstructions) 235, Digital Assistant Client Module 229, and applications(or sets of instructions) 236. Further, memory 202 can store data andmodels, such as user data and models 231. Furthermore, in someembodiments, memory 202 (FIG. 2A) or 470 (FIG. 4) stores device/globalinternal state 257, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 4. Device/global internalstate 257 includes one or more of: active application state, indicatingwhich applications, if any, are currently active; display state,indicating what applications, views or other information occupy variousregions of touch screen display 212; sensor state, including informationobtained from the device's various sensors and input control devices216; and location information concerning the device's location and/orattitude.

Operating system 226 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, OS X, iOS,WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includesvarious software components and/or drivers for controlling and managinggeneral system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control,power management, etc.) and facilitates communication between varioushardware and software components.

Communication module 228 facilitates communication with other devicesover one or more external ports 224 and also includes various softwarecomponents for handling data received by RF circuitry 208 and/orexternal port 224. External port 224 (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB),FIREWIRE, etc.) is adapted for coupling directly to other devices orindirectly over a network (e.g., the Internet, wireless LAN, etc.). Insome embodiments, the external port is a multi-pin (e.g., 30-pin)connector that is the same as, or similar to and/or compatible with, the30-pin connector used on iPod® (trademark of Apple Inc.) devices.

Contact/motion module 230 optionally detects contact with touch screen212 (in conjunction with display controller 256) and othertouch-sensitive devices (e.g., a touchpad or physical click wheel).Contact/motion module 230 includes various software components forperforming various operations related to detection of contact, such asdetermining if contact has occurred (e.g., detecting a finger-downevent), determining an intensity of the contact (e.g., the force orpressure of the contact or a substitute for the force or pressure of thecontact), determining if there is movement of the contact and trackingthe movement across the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., detecting one ormore finger-dragging events), and determining if the contact has ceased(e.g., detecting a finger-up event or a break in contact).Contact/motion module 230 receives contact data from the touch-sensitivesurface. Determining movement of the point of contact, which isrepresented by a series of contact data, optionally includes determiningspeed (magnitude), velocity (magnitude and direction), and/or anacceleration (a change in magnitude and/or direction) of the point ofcontact. These operations are, optionally, applied to single contacts(e.g., one finger contacts) or to multiple simultaneous contacts (e.g.,“multitouch”/multiple finger contacts). In some embodiments,contact/motion module 230 and display controller 256 detect contact on atouchpad.

In some embodiments, contact/motion module 230 uses a set of one or moreintensity thresholds to determine whether an operation has beenperformed by a user (e.g., to determine whether a user has “clicked” onan icon). In some embodiments, at least a subset of the intensitythresholds are determined in accordance with software parameters (e.g.,the intensity thresholds are not determined by the activation thresholdsof particular physical actuators and can be adjusted without changingthe physical hardware of device 200). For example, a mouse “click”threshold of a trackpad or touch screen display can be set to any of alarge range of predefined threshold values without changing the trackpador touch screen display hardware. Additionally, in some implementations,a user of the device is provided with software settings for adjustingone or more of the set of intensity thresholds (e.g., by adjustingindividual intensity thresholds and/or by adjusting a plurality ofintensity thresholds at once with a system-level click “intensity”parameter).

Contact/motion module 230 optionally detects a gesture input by a user.Different gestures on the touch-sensitive surface have different contactpatterns (e.g., different motions, timings, and/or intensities ofdetected contacts). Thus, a gesture is, optionally, detected bydetecting a particular contact pattern. For example, detecting a fingertap gesture includes detecting a finger-down event followed by detectinga finger-up (liftoff) event at the same position (or substantially thesame position) as the finger-down event (e.g., at the position of anicon). As another example, detecting a finger swipe gesture on thetouch-sensitive surface includes detecting a finger-down event followedby detecting one or more finger-dragging events, and subsequentlyfollowed by detecting a finger-up (liftoff) event.

Graphics module 232 includes various known software components forrendering and displaying graphics on touch screen 212 or other display,including components for changing the visual impact (e.g., brightness,transparency, saturation, contrast, or other visual property) ofgraphics that are displayed. As used herein, the term “graphics”includes any object that can be displayed to a user, including, withoutlimitation, text, web pages, icons (such as user-interface objectsincluding soft keys), digital images, videos, animations, and the like.

In some embodiments, graphics module 232 stores data representinggraphics to be used. Each graphic is, optionally, assigned acorresponding code. Graphics module 232 receives, from applicationsetc., one or more codes specifying graphics to be displayed along with,if necessary, coordinate data and other graphic property data, and thengenerates screen image data to output to display controller 256.

Haptic feedback module 233 includes various software components forgenerating instructions used by tactile output generator(s) 267 toproduce tactile outputs at one or more locations on device 200 inresponse to user interactions with device 200.

Text input module 234, which may be a component of graphics module 232,provides soft keyboards for entering text in various applications (e.g.,contacts 237, e mail 240, IM 241, browser 247, and any other applicationthat needs text input).

GPS module 235 determines the location of the device and provides thisinformation for use in various applications (e.g., to telephone 238 foruse in location-based dialing; to camera 243 as picture/video metadata;and to applications that provide location-based services such as weatherwidgets, local yellow page widgets, and map/navigation widgets).

Digital assistant client module 229 can include various client-sidedigital assistant instructions to provide the client-sidefunctionalities of the digital assistant. For example, digital assistantclient module 229 can be capable of accepting voice input (e.g., speechinput), text input, touch input, and/or gestural input through varioususer interfaces (e.g., microphone 213, accelerometer(s) 268,touch-sensitive display system 212, optical sensor(s) 229, other inputcontrol devices 216, etc.) of portable multifunction device 200. Digitalassistant client module 229 can also be capable of providing output inaudio (e.g., speech output), visual, and/or tactile forms throughvarious output interfaces (e.g., speaker 211, touch-sensitive displaysystem 212, tactile output generator(s) 267, etc.) of portablemultifunction device 200. For example, output can be provided as voice,sound, alerts, text messages, menus, graphics, videos, animations,vibrations, and/or combinations of two or more of the above. Duringoperation, digital assistant client module 229 can communicate with DAserver 106 using RF circuitry 208.

User data and models 231 can include various data associated with theuser (e.g., user-specific vocabulary data, user preference data,user-specified name pronunciations, data from the user's electronicaddress book, to-do lists, shopping lists, etc.) to provide theclient-side functionalities of the digital assistant. Further, user dataand models 231 can includes various models (e.g., speech recognitionmodels, statistical language models, natural language processing models,ontology, task flow models, service models, etc.) for processing userinput and determining user intent.

In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 can utilize thevarious sensors, subsystems, and peripheral devices of portablemultifunction device 200 to gather additional information from thesurrounding environment of the portable multifunction device 200 toestablish a context associated with a user, the current userinteraction, and/or the current user input. In some examples, digitalassistant client module 229 can provide the contextual information or asubset thereof with the user input to DA server 106 to help infer theuser's intent. In some examples, the digital assistant can also use thecontextual information to determine how to prepare and deliver outputsto the user. Contextual information can be referred to as context data.

In some examples, the contextual information that accompanies the userinput can include sensor information, e.g., lighting, ambient noise,ambient temperature, images or videos of the surrounding environment,etc. In some examples, the contextual information can also include thephysical state of the device, e.g., device orientation, device location,device temperature, power level, speed, acceleration, motion patterns,cellular signals strength, etc. In some examples, information related tothe software state of DA server 106, e.g., running processes, installedprograms, past and present network activities, background services,error logs, resources usage, etc., and of portable multifunction device200 can be provided to DA server 106 as contextual informationassociated with a user input.

In some examples, the digital assistant client module 229 canselectively provide information (e.g., user data 231) stored on theportable multifunction device 200 in response to requests from DA server106. In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 can alsoelicit additional input from the user via a natural language dialogue orother user interfaces upon request by DA server 106. Digital assistantclient module 229 can pass the additional input to DA server 106 to helpDA server 106 in intent deduction and/or fulfillment of the user'sintent expressed in the user request.

A more detailed description of a digital assistant is described belowwith reference to FIGS. 7A-C. It should be recognized that digitalassistant client module 229 can include any number of the sub-modules ofdigital assistant module 726 described below.

Applications 236 may include the following modules (or sets ofinstructions), or a subset or superset thereof:

-   -   Contacts module 237 (sometimes called an address book or contact        list);    -   Telephone module 238;    -   Video conference module 239;    -   Email client module 240;    -   Instant messaging (IM) module 241;    -   Workout support module 242;    -   Camera module 243 for still and/or video images;    -   Image management module 244;    -   Video player module;    -   Music player module;    -   Browser module 247;    -   Calendar module 248;    -   Widget modules 249, which may include one or more of: weather        widget 249-1, stocks widget 249-2, calculator widget 249-3,        alarm clock widget 249-4, dictionary widget 249-5, and other        widgets obtained by the user, as well as user-created widgets        249-6;    -   Widget creator module 250 for making user-created widgets 249-6;    -   Search module 251;    -   Video and music player module 252, which merges video player        module and music player module;    -   Notes module 253;    -   Map module 254; and/or    -   Online video module 255.

Examples of other applications 236 that may be stored in memory 202include other word processing applications, other image editingapplications, drawing applications, presentation applications,JAVA-enabled applications, encryption, digital rights management, voicerecognition, and voice replication.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module234, contacts module 237 may be used to manage an address book orcontact list (e.g., stored in application internal state 292 of contactsmodule 237 in memory 202 or memory 470), including: adding name(s) tothe address book; deleting name(s) from the address book; associatingtelephone number(s), email address(es), physical address(es) or otherinformation with a name; associating an image with a name; categorizingand sorting names; providing telephone numbers or email addresses toinitiate and/or facilitate communications by telephone 238, videoconference module 239, email 240, or IM 241; and so forth.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211,microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motionmodule 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, telephonemodule 238 may be used to enter a sequence of characters correspondingto a telephone number, access one or more telephone numbers in contactsmodule 237, modify a telephone number that has been entered, dial arespective telephone number, conduct a conversation, and disconnect orhang up when the conversation is completed. As noted above, the wirelesscommunication may use any of a plurality of communications standards,protocols, and technologies.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211,microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, optical sensor264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230, graphicsmodule 232, text input module 234, contacts module 237, and telephonemodule 238, video conference module 239 includes executable instructionsto initiate, conduct, and terminate a video conference between a userand one or more other participants in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and textinput module 234, email client module 240 includes executableinstructions to create, send, receive, and manage email in response touser instructions. In conjunction with image management module 244,email client module 240 makes it very easy to create and send emailswith still or video images taken with camera module 243.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and textinput module 234, the instant messaging module 241 includes executableinstructions to enter a sequence of characters corresponding to aninstant message, to modify previously entered characters, to transmit arespective instant message (for example, using a Short Message Service(SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) protocol for telephony-basedinstant messages or using XMPP, SIMPLE, or IMPS for Internet-basedinstant messages), to receive instant messages, and to view receivedinstant messages. In some embodiments, transmitted and/or receivedinstant messages may include graphics, photos, audio files, video filesand/or other attachments as are supported in an MMS and/or an EnhancedMessaging Service (EMS). As used herein, “instant messaging” refers toboth telephony-based messages (e.g., messages sent using SMS or MMS) andInternet-based messages (e.g., messages sent using XMPP, SIMPLE, orIMPS).

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, GPS module 235, map module 254, and music playermodule, workout support module 242 includes executable instructions tocreate workouts (e.g., with time, distance, and/or calorie burninggoals); communicate with workout sensors (sports devices); receiveworkout sensor data; calibrate sensors used to monitor a workout; selectand play music for a workout; and display, store, and transmit workoutdata.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, opticalsensor(s) 264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230,graphics module 232, and image management module 244, camera module 243includes executable instructions to capture still images or video(including a video stream) and store them into memory 202, modifycharacteristics of a still image or video, or delete a still image orvideo from memory 202.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234,and camera module 243, image management module 244 includes executableinstructions to arrange, modify (e.g., edit), or otherwise manipulate,label, delete, present (e.g., in a digital slide show or album), andstore still and/or video images.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and textinput module 234, browser module 247 includes executable instructions tobrowse the Internet in accordance with user instructions, includingsearching, linking to, receiving, and displaying web pages or portionsthereof, as well as attachments and other files linked to web pages.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, email client module 240, and browser module 247,calendar module 248 includes executable instructions to create, display,modify, and store calendars and data associated with calendars (e.g.,calendar entries, to-do lists, etc.) in accordance with userinstructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, and browser module 247, widget modules 249 aremini-applications that may be downloaded and used by a user (e.g.,weather widget 249-1, stocks widget 249-2, calculator widget 249-3,alarm clock widget 249-4, and dictionary widget 249-5) or created by theuser (e.g., user-created widget 249-6). In some embodiments, a widgetincludes an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) file, a CSS (CascadingStyle Sheets) file, and a JavaScript file. In some embodiments, a widgetincludes an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file and a JavaScript file(e.g., Yahoo! Widgets).

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, and browser module 247, the widget creator module 250may be used by a user to create widgets (e.g., turning a user-specifiedportion of a web page into a widget).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module234, search module 251 includes executable instructions to search fortext, music, sound, image, video, and/or other files in memory 202 thatmatch one or more search criteria (e.g., one or more user-specifiedsearch terms) in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210,speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, and browser module 247, video and musicplayer module 252 includes executable instructions that allow the userto download and play back recorded music and other sound files stored inone or more file formats, such as MP3 or AAC files, and executableinstructions to display, present, or otherwise play back videos (e.g.,on touch screen 212 or on an external, connected display via externalport 224). In some embodiments, device 200 optionally includes thefunctionality of an MP3 player, such as an iPod (trademark of AppleInc.).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module234, notes module 253 includes executable instructions to create andmanage notes, to-do lists, and the like in accordance with userinstructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, GPS module 235, and browser module 247, map module 254may be used to receive, display, modify, and store maps and dataassociated with maps (e.g., driving directions, data on stores and otherpoints of interest at or near a particular location, and otherlocation-based data) in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210,speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, text input module 234, email clientmodule 240, and browser module 247, online video module 255 includesinstructions that allow the user to access, browse, receive (e.g., bystreaming and/or download), play back (e.g., on the touch screen or onan external, connected display via external port 224), send an emailwith a link to a particular online video, and otherwise manage onlinevideos in one or more file formats, such as H.264. In some embodiments,instant messaging module 241, rather than email client module 240, isused to send a link to a particular online video. Additional descriptionof the online video application can be found in U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/936,562, “Portable Multifunction Device, Method, andGraphical User Interface for Playing Online Videos,” filed Jun. 20,2007, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/968,067, “PortableMultifunction Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for PlayingOnline Videos,” filed Dec. 31, 2007, the contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

Each of the above-identified modules and applications corresponds to aset of executable instructions for performing one or more functionsdescribed above and the methods described in this application (e.g., thecomputer-implemented methods and other information processing methodsdescribed herein). These modules (e.g., sets of instructions) need notbe implemented as separate software programs, procedures, or modules,and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwiserearranged in various embodiments. For example, video player module maybe combined with music player module into a single module (e.g., videoand music player module 252, FIG. 2A). In some embodiments, memory 202may store a subset of the modules and data structures identified above.Furthermore, memory 202 may store additional modules and data structuresnot described above.

In some embodiments, device 200 is a device where operation of apredefined set of functions on the device is performed exclusivelythrough a touch screen and/or a touchpad. By using a touch screen and/ora touchpad as the primary input control device for operation of device200, the number of physical input control devices (such as push buttons,dials, and the like) on device 200 may be reduced.

The predefined set of functions that are performed exclusively through atouch screen and/or a touchpad optionally include navigation betweenuser interfaces. In some embodiments, the touchpad, when touched by theuser, navigates device 200 to a main, home, or root menu from any userinterface that is displayed on device 200. In such embodiments, a “menubutton” is implemented using a touchpad. In some other embodiments, themenu button is a physical push button or other physical input controldevice instead of a touchpad.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for eventhandling in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments,memory 202 (FIG. 2A) or 470 (FIG. 4) includes event sorter 270 (e.g., inoperating system 226) and a respective application 236-1 (e.g., any ofthe aforementioned applications 237-251, 255, 480-490).

Event sorter 270 receives event information and determines theapplication 236-1 and application view 291 of application 236-1 to whichto deliver the event information. Event sorter 270 includes eventmonitor 271 and event dispatcher module 274. In some embodiments,application 236-1 includes application internal state 292, whichindicates the current application view(s) displayed on touch-sensitivedisplay 212 when the application is active or executing. In someembodiments, device/global internal state 257 is used by event sorter270 to determine which application(s) is (are) currently active, andapplication internal state 292 is used by event sorter 270 to determineapplication views 291 to which to deliver event information.

In some embodiments, application internal state 292 includes additionalinformation, such as one or more of: resume information to be used whenapplication 236-1 resumes execution, user interface state informationthat indicates information being displayed or that is ready for displayby application 236-1, a state queue for enabling the user to go back toa prior state or view of application 236-1, and a redo/undo queue ofprevious actions taken by the user.

Event monitor 271 receives event information from peripherals interface218. Event information includes information about a sub-event (e.g., auser touch on touch-sensitive display 212, as part of a multi-touchgesture). Peripherals interface 218 transmits information it receivesfrom I/O subsystem 206 or a sensor, such as proximity sensor 266,accelerometer(s) 268, and/or microphone 213 (through audio circuitry210). Information that peripherals interface 218 receives from I/Osubsystem 206 includes information from touch-sensitive display 212 or atouch-sensitive surface.

In some embodiments, event monitor 271 sends requests to the peripheralsinterface 218 at predetermined intervals. In response, peripheralsinterface 218 transmits event information. In other embodiments,peripherals interface 218 transmits event information only when there isa significant event (e.g., receiving an input above a predeterminednoise threshold and/or for more than a predetermined duration).

In some embodiments, event sorter 270 also includes a hit viewdetermination module 272 and/or an active event recognizer determinationmodule 273.

Hit view determination module 272 provides software procedures fordetermining where a sub-event has taken place within one or more viewswhen touch-sensitive display 212 displays more than one view. Views aremade up of controls and other elements that a user can see on thedisplay.

Another aspect of the user interface associated with an application is aset of views, sometimes herein called application views or userinterface windows, in which information is displayed and touch-basedgestures occur. The application views (of a respective application) inwhich a touch is detected may correspond to programmatic levels within aprogrammatic or view hierarchy of the application. For example, thelowest level view in which a touch is detected may be called the hitview, and the set of events that are recognized as proper inputs may bedetermined based, at least in part, on the hit view of the initial touchthat begins a touch-based gesture.

Hit view determination module 272 receives information related to subevents of a touch-based gesture. When an application has multiple viewsorganized in a hierarchy, hit view determination module 272 identifies ahit view as the lowest view in the hierarchy which should handle thesub-event. In most circumstances, the hit view is the lowest level viewin which an initiating sub-event occurs (e.g., the first sub-event inthe sequence of sub-events that form an event or potential event). Oncethe hit view is identified by the hit view determination module 272, thehit view typically receives all sub-events related to the same touch orinput source for which it was identified as the hit view.

Active event recognizer determination module 273 determines which viewor views within a view hierarchy should receive a particular sequence ofsub-events. In some embodiments, active event recognizer determinationmodule 273 determines that only the hit view should receive a particularsequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, active event recognizerdetermination module 273 determines that all views that include thephysical location of a sub-event are actively involved views, andtherefore determines that all actively involved views should receive aparticular sequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, even if touchsub-events were entirely confined to the area associated with oneparticular view, views higher in the hierarchy would still remain asactively involved views.

Event dispatcher module 274 dispatches the event information to an eventrecognizer (e.g., event recognizer 280). In embodiments including activeevent recognizer determination module 273, event dispatcher module 274delivers the event information to an event recognizer determined byactive event recognizer determination module 273. In some embodiments,event dispatcher module 274 stores in an event queue the eventinformation, which is retrieved by a respective event receiver 282.

In some embodiments, operating system 226 includes event sorter 270.Alternatively, application 236-1 includes event sorter 270. In yet otherembodiments, event sorter 270 is a stand-alone module, or a part ofanother module stored in memory 202, such as contact/motion module 230.

In some embodiments, application 236-1 includes a plurality of eventhandlers 290 and one or more application views 291, each of whichincludes instructions for handling touch events that occur within arespective view of the application's user interface. Each applicationview 291 of the application 236-1 includes one or more event recognizers280. Typically, a respective application view 291 includes a pluralityof event recognizers 280. In other embodiments, one or more of eventrecognizers 280 are part of a separate module, such as a user interfacekit (not shown) or a higher level object from which application 236-1inherits methods and other properties. In some embodiments, a respectiveevent handler 290 includes one or more of: data updater 276, objectupdater 277, GUI updater 278, and/or event data 279 received from eventsorter 270. Event handler 290 may utilize or call data updater 276,object updater 277, or GUI updater 278 to update the applicationinternal state 292. Alternatively, one or more of the application views291 include one or more respective event handlers 290. Also, in someembodiments, one or more of data updater 276, object updater 277, andGUI updater 278 are included in a respective application view 291.

A respective event recognizer 280 receives event information (e.g.,event data 279) from event sorter 270 and identifies an event from theevent information. Event recognizer 280 includes event receiver 282 andevent comparator 284. In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 alsoincludes at least a subset of: metadata 283, and event deliveryinstructions 288 (which may include sub-event delivery instructions).

Event receiver 282 receives event information from event sorter 270. Theevent information includes information about a sub-event, for example, atouch or a touch movement. Depending on the sub-event, the eventinformation also includes additional information, such as location ofthe sub-event. When the sub-event concerns motion of a touch, the eventinformation may also include speed and direction of the sub-event. Insome embodiments, events include rotation of the device from oneorientation to another (e.g., from a portrait orientation to a landscapeorientation, or vice versa), and the event information includescorresponding information about the current orientation (also calleddevice attitude) of the device.

Event comparator 284 compares the event information to predefined eventor sub-event definitions and, based on the comparison, determines anevent or sub event, or determines or updates the state of an event orsub-event. In some embodiments, event comparator 284 includes eventdefinitions 286. Event definitions 286 contain definitions of events(e.g., predefined sequences of sub-events), for example, event 1(287-1), event 2 (287-2), and others. In some embodiments, sub-events inan event (287) include, for example, touch begin, touch end, touchmovement, touch cancellation, and multiple touching. In one example, thedefinition for event 1 (287-1) is a double tap on a displayed object.The double tap, for example, comprises a first touch (touch begin) onthe displayed object for a predetermined phase, a first liftoff (touchend) for a predetermined phase, a second touch (touch begin) on thedisplayed object for a predetermined phase, and a second liftoff (touchend) for a predetermined phase. In another example, the definition forevent 2 (287-2) is a dragging on a displayed object. The dragging, forexample, comprises a touch (or contact) on the displayed object for apredetermined phase, a movement of the touch across touch-sensitivedisplay 212, and liftoff of the touch (touch end). In some embodiments,the event also includes information for one or more associated eventhandlers 290.

In some embodiments, event definition 287 includes a definition of anevent for a respective user-interface object. In some embodiments, eventcomparator 284 performs a hit test to determine which user-interfaceobject is associated with a sub-event. For example, in an applicationview in which three user-interface objects are displayed ontouch-sensitive display 212, when a touch is detected on touch-sensitivedisplay 212, event comparator 284 performs a hit test to determine whichof the three user-interface objects is associated with the touch(sub-event). If each displayed object is associated with a respectiveevent handler 290, the event comparator uses the result of the hit testto determine which event handler 290 should be activated. For example,event comparator 284 selects an event handler associated with thesub-event and the object triggering the hit test.

In some embodiments, the definition for a respective event (287) alsoincludes delayed actions that delay delivery of the event informationuntil after it has been determined whether the sequence of sub-eventsdoes or does not correspond to the event recognizer's event type.

When a respective event recognizer 280 determines that the series ofsub-events do not match any of the events in event definitions 286, therespective event recognizer 280 enters an event impossible, eventfailed, or event ended state, after which it disregards subsequentsub-events of the touch-based gesture. In this situation, other eventrecognizers, if any, that remain active for the hit view continue totrack and process sub-events of an ongoing touch-based gesture.

In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 includes metadata283 with configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate howthe event delivery system should perform sub-event delivery to activelyinvolved event recognizers. In some embodiments, metadata 283 includesconfigurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate how eventrecognizers may interact, or are enabled to interact, with one another.In some embodiments, metadata 283 includes configurable properties,flags, and/or lists that indicate whether sub-events are delivered tovarying levels in the view or programmatic hierarchy.

In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 activates eventhandler 290 associated with an event when one or more particularsub-events of an event are recognized. In some embodiments, a respectiveevent recognizer 280 delivers event information associated with theevent to event handler 290. Activating an event handler 290 is distinctfrom sending (and deferred sending) sub-events to a respective hit view.In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 throws a flag associated withthe recognized event, and event handler 290 associated with the flagcatches the flag and performs a predefined process.

In some embodiments, event delivery instructions 288 include sub-eventdelivery instructions that deliver event information about a sub-eventwithout activating an event handler. Instead, the sub-event deliveryinstructions deliver event information to event handlers associated withthe series of sub-events or to actively involved views. Event handlersassociated with the series of sub-events or with actively involved viewsreceive the event information and perform a predetermined process.

In some embodiments, data updater 276 creates and updates data used inapplication 236-1. For example, data updater 276 updates the telephonenumber used in contacts module 237, or stores a video file used in videoplayer module. In some embodiments, object updater 277 creates andupdates objects used in application 236-1. For example, object updater277 creates a new user-interface object or updates the position of auser-interface object. GUI updater 278 updates the GUI. For example, GUIupdater 278 prepares display information and sends it to graphics module232 for display on a touch-sensitive display.

In some embodiments, event handler(s) 290 includes or has access to dataupdater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278. In someembodiments, data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278are included in a single module of a respective application 236-1 orapplication view 291. In other embodiments, they are included in two ormore software modules.

It shall be understood that the foregoing discussion regarding eventhandling of user touches on touch-sensitive displays also applies toother forms of user inputs to operate multifunction devices 200 withinput devices, not all of which are initiated on touch screens. Forexample, mouse movement and mouse button presses, optionally coordinatedwith single or multiple keyboard presses or holds; contact movementssuch as taps, drags, scrolls, etc. on touchpads; pen stylus inputs;movement of the device; oral instructions; detected eye movements;biometric inputs; and/or any combination thereof are optionally utilizedas inputs corresponding to sub-events which define an event to berecognized.

FIG. 3 illustrates a portable multifunction device 200 having a touchscreen 212 in accordance with some embodiments. The touch screenoptionally displays one or more graphics within user interface (UI) 300.In this embodiment, as well as others described below, a user is enabledto select one or more of the graphics by making a gesture on thegraphics, for example, with one or more fingers 302 (not drawn to scalein the figure) or one or more styluses 303 (not drawn to scale in thefigure). In some embodiments, selection of one or more graphics occurswhen the user breaks contact with the one or more graphics. In someembodiments, the gesture optionally includes one or more taps, one ormore swipes (from left to right, right to left, upward and/or downward),and/or a rolling of a finger (from right to left, left to right, upwardand/or downward) that has made contact with device 200. In someimplementations or circumstances, inadvertent contact with a graphicdoes not select the graphic. For example, a swipe gesture that sweepsover an application icon optionally does not select the correspondingapplication when the gesture corresponding to selection is a tap.

Device 200 may also include one or more physical buttons, such as “home”or menu button 304. As described previously, menu button 304 may be usedto navigate to any application 236 in a set of applications that may beexecuted on device 200. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the menubutton is implemented as a soft key in a GUI displayed on touch screen212.

In one embodiment, device 200 includes touch screen 212, menu button304, push button 306 for powering the device on/off and locking thedevice, volume adjustment button(s) 308, subscriber identity module(SIM) card slot 310, headset jack 312, and docking/charging externalport 224. Push button 306 is, optionally, used to turn the power on/offon the device by depressing the button and holding the button in thedepressed state for a predefined time interval; to lock the device bydepressing the button and releasing the button before the predefinedtime interval has elapsed; and/or to unlock the device or initiate anunlock process. In an alternative embodiment, device 200 also acceptsverbal input for activation or deactivation of some functions throughmicrophone 213. Device 200 also, optionally, includes one or morecontact intensity sensors 265 for detecting intensity of contacts ontouch screen 212 and/or one or more tactile output generators 267 forgenerating tactile outputs for a user of device 200.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary multifunction device with adisplay and a touch-sensitive surface in accordance with someembodiments. Device 400 need not be portable. In some embodiments,device 400 is a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer,a multimedia player device, a navigation device, an educational device(such as a child's learning toy), a gaming system, or a control device(e.g., a home or industrial controller). Device 400 typically includesone or more processing units (CPUs) 410, one or more network or othercommunications interfaces 460, memory 470, and one or more communicationbuses 420 for interconnecting these components. Communication buses 420optionally include circuitry (sometimes called a chipset) thatinterconnects and controls communications between system components.Device 400 includes input/output (I/O) interface 430 comprising display440, which is typically a touch screen display. I/O interface 430 alsooptionally includes a keyboard and/or mouse (or other pointing device)450 and touchpad 455, tactile output generator 457 for generatingtactile outputs on device 400 (e.g., similar to tactile outputgenerator(s) 267 described above with reference to FIG. 2A), sensors 459(e.g., optical, acceleration, proximity, touch-sensitive, and/or contactintensity sensors similar to contact intensity sensor(s) 265 describedabove with reference to FIG. 2A). Memory 470 includes high-speed randomaccess memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM, or other random access solidstate memory devices; and optionally includes non-volatile memory, suchas one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storagedevices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storagedevices. Memory 470 optionally includes one or more storage devicesremotely located from CPU(s) 410. In some embodiments, memory 470 storesprograms, modules, and data structures analogous to the programs,modules, and data structures stored in memory 202 of portablemultifunction device 200 (FIG. 2A), or a subset thereof. Furthermore,memory 470 optionally stores additional programs, modules, and datastructures not present in memory 202 of portable multifunction device200. For example, memory 470 of device 400 optionally stores drawingmodule 480, presentation module 482, word processing module 484, websitecreation module 486, disk authoring module 488, and/or spreadsheetmodule 490, while memory 202 of portable multifunction device 200 (FIG.2A) optionally does not store these modules.

Each of the above-identified elements in FIG. 4 may be stored in one ormore of the previously mentioned memory devices. Each of theabove-identified modules corresponds to a set of instructions forperforming a function described above. The above-identified modules orprograms (e.g., sets of instructions) need not be implemented asseparate software programs, procedures, or modules, and thus varioussubsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise rearranged invarious embodiments. In some embodiments, memory 470 may store a subsetof the modules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, memory470 may store additional modules and data structures not describedabove.

Attention is now directed towards embodiments of user interfaces thatmay be implemented on, for example, portable multifunction device 200.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary user interface for a menu ofapplications on portable multifunction device 200 in accordance withsome embodiments. Similar user interfaces may be implemented on device400. In some embodiments, user interface 500 includes the followingelements, or a subset or superset thereof:

-   -   Signal strength indicator(s) 502 for wireless communication(s),        such as cellular and Wi-Fi signals;    -   Time 504;    -   Bluetooth indicator 505;    -   Battery status indicator 506;    -   Tray 508 with icons for frequently used applications, such as:        -   Icon 516 for telephone module 238, labeled “Phone,” which            optionally includes an indicator 514 of the number of missed            calls or voicemail messages;        -   Icon 518 for email client module 240, labeled “Mail,” which            optionally includes an indicator 510 of the number of unread            emails;        -   Icon 520 for browser module 247, labeled “Browser;” and        -   Icon 522 for video and music player module 252, also            referred to as iPod (trademark of Apple Inc.) module 252,            labeled “iPod;” and    -   Icons for other applications, such as:        -   Icon 524 for IM module 241, labeled “Messages;”        -   Icon 526 for calendar module 248, labeled “Calendar;”        -   Icon 528 for image management module 244, labeled “Photos;”        -   Icon 530 for camera module 243, labeled “Camera;”        -   Icon 532 for online video module 255, labeled “Online            Video;”        -   Icon 534 for stocks widget 249-2, labeled “Stocks;”        -   Icon 536 for map module 254, labeled “Maps;”        -   Icon 538 for weather widget 249-1, labeled “Weather;”        -   Icon 540 for alarm clock widget 249-4, labeled “Clock;”        -   Icon 542 for workout support module 242, labeled “Workout            Support;”        -   Icon 544 for notes module 253, labeled “Notes;” and        -   Icon 546 for a settings application or module, labeled            “Settings,” which provides access to settings for device 200            and its various applications 236.

It should be noted that the icon labels illustrated in FIG. 5A aremerely exemplary. For example, icon 522 for video and music playermodule 252 may optionally be labeled “Music” or “Music Player.” Otherlabels are, optionally, used for various application icons. In someembodiments, a label for a respective application icon includes a nameof an application corresponding to the respective application icon. Insome embodiments, a label for a particular application icon is distinctfrom a name of an application corresponding to the particularapplication icon.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary user interface on a device (e.g.,device 400, FIG. 4) with a touch-sensitive surface 551 (e.g., a tabletor touchpad 455, FIG. 4) that is separate from the display 550 (e.g.,touch screen display 212). Device 400 also, optionally, includes one ormore contact intensity sensors (e.g., one or more of sensors 457) fordetecting intensity of contacts on touch-sensitive surface 551 and/orone or more tactile output generators 459 for generating tactile outputsfor a user of device 400.

Although some of the examples which follow will be given with referenceto inputs on touch screen display 212 (where the touch-sensitive surfaceand the display are combined), in some embodiments, the device detectsinputs on a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the display,as shown in FIG. 5B. In some embodiments, the touch-sensitive surface(e.g., 551 in FIG. 5B) has a primary axis (e.g., 552 in FIG. 5B) thatcorresponds to a primary axis (e.g., 553 in FIG. 5B) on the display(e.g., 550). In accordance with these embodiments, the device detectscontacts (e.g., 560 and 562 in FIG. 5B) with the touch-sensitive surface551 at locations that correspond to respective locations on the display(e.g., in FIG. 5B, 560 corresponds to 568 and 562 corresponds to 570).In this way, user inputs (e.g., contacts 560 and 562, and movementsthereof) detected by the device on the touch-sensitive surface (e.g.,551 in FIG. 5B) are used by the device to manipulate the user interfaceon the display (e.g., 550 in FIG. 5B) of the multifunction device whenthe touch-sensitive surface is separate from the display. It should beunderstood that similar methods are, optionally, used for other userinterfaces described herein.

Additionally, while the following examples are given primarily withreference to finger inputs (e.g., finger contacts, finger tap gestures,finger swipe gestures), it should be understood that, in someembodiments, one or more of the finger inputs are replaced with inputfrom another input device (e.g., a mouse-based input or stylus input).For example, a swipe gesture is, optionally, replaced with a mouse click(e.g., instead of a contact) followed by movement of the cursor alongthe path of the swipe (e.g., instead of movement of the contact). Asanother example, a tap gesture is, optionally, replaced with a mouseclick while the cursor is located over the location of the tap gesture(e.g., instead of detection of the contact followed by ceasing to detectthe contact). Similarly, when multiple user inputs are simultaneouslydetected, it should be understood that multiple computer mice are,optionally, used simultaneously, or a mouse and finger contacts are,optionally, used simultaneously.

FIG. 6A illustrates exemplary personal electronic device 600. Device 600includes body 602. In some embodiments, device 600 can include some orall of the features described with respect to devices 200 and 400 (e.g.,FIGS. 2A-4B). In some embodiments, device 600 has touch-sensitivedisplay screen 604, hereafter touch screen 604. Alternatively, or inaddition to touch screen 604, device 600 has a display and atouch-sensitive surface. As with devices 200 and 400, in someembodiments, touch screen 604 (or the touch-sensitive surface) may haveone or more intensity sensors for detecting intensity of contacts (e.g.,touches) being applied. The one or more intensity sensors of touchscreen 604 (or the touch-sensitive surface) can provide output data thatrepresents the intensity of touches. The user interface of device 600can respond to touches based on their intensity, meaning that touches ofdifferent intensities can invoke different user interface operations ondevice 600.

Techniques for detecting and processing touch intensity may be found,for example, in related applications: International Patent ApplicationSerial No. PCT/US2013/040061, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical UserInterface for Displaying User Interface Objects Corresponding to anApplication,” filed May 8, 2013, and International Patent ApplicationSerial No. PCT/US2013/069483, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical UserInterface for Transitioning Between Touch Input to Display OutputRelationships,” filed Nov. 11, 2013, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more input mechanisms 606 and608. Input mechanisms 606 and 608, if included, can be physical.Examples of physical input mechanisms include push buttons and rotatablemechanisms. In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more attachmentmechanisms. Such attachment mechanisms, if included, can permitattachment of device 600 with, for example, hats, eyewear, earrings,necklaces, shirts, jackets, bracelets, watch straps, chains, trousers,belts, shoes, purses, backpacks, and so forth. These attachmentmechanisms may permit device 600 to be worn by a user.

FIG. 6B depicts exemplary personal electronic device 600. In someembodiments, device 600 can include some or all of the componentsdescribed with respect to FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 4. Device 600 has bus 612that operatively couples I/O section 614 with one or more computerprocessors 616 and memory 618. I/O section 614 can be connected todisplay 604, which can have touch-sensitive component 622 and,optionally, touch-intensity sensitive component 624. In addition, I/Osection 614 can be connected with communication unit 630 for receivingapplication and operating system data, using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, nearfield communication (NFC), cellular, and/or other wireless communicationtechniques. Device 600 can include input mechanisms 606 and/or 608.Input mechanism 606 may be a rotatable input device or a depressible androtatable input device, for example. Input mechanism 608 may be abutton, in some examples.

Input mechanism 608 may be a microphone, in some examples. Personalelectronic device 600 can include various sensors, such as GPS sensor632, accelerometer 634, directional sensor 640 (e.g., compass),gyroscope 636, motion sensor 638, and/or a combination thereof, all ofwhich can be operatively connected to I/O section 614.

Memory 618 of personal electronic device 600 can be a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium, for storing computer-executableinstructions, which, when executed by one or more computer processors616, for example, can cause the computer processors to perform thetechniques described below, including processes 800-900 (FIGS. 8-9). Thecomputer-executable instructions can also be stored and/or transportedwithin any non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for use by orin connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, orother system that can fetch the instructions from the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions.Personal electronic device 600 is not limited to the components andconfiguration of FIG. 6B, but can include other or additional componentsin multiple configurations.

As used here, the term “affordance” refers to a user-interactivegraphical user interface object that may be displayed on the displayscreen of devices 200, 400, and/or 600 (FIGS. 2, 4, and 6). For example,an image (e.g., icon), a button, and text (e.g., link) may eachconstitute an affordance.

As used herein, the term “focus selector” refers to an input elementthat indicates a current part of a user interface with which a user isinteracting. In some implementations that include a cursor or otherlocation marker, the cursor acts as a “focus selector” so that when aninput (e.g., a press input) is detected on a touch-sensitive surface(e.g., touchpad 455 in FIG. 4 or touch-sensitive surface 551 in FIG. 5B)while the cursor is over a particular user interface element (e.g., abutton, window, slider or other user interface element), the particularuser interface element is adjusted in accordance with the detectedinput. In some implementations that include a touch screen display(e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212 in FIG. 2A or touch screen 212in FIG. 5A) that enables direct interaction with user interface elementson the touch screen display, a detected contact on the touch screen actsas a “focus selector” so that when an input (e.g., a press input by thecontact) is detected on the touch screen display at a location of aparticular user interface element (e.g., a button, window, slider, orother user interface element), the particular user interface element isadjusted in accordance with the detected input. In some implementations,focus is moved from one region of a user interface to another region ofthe user interface without corresponding movement of a cursor ormovement of a contact on a touch screen display (e.g., by using a tabkey or arrow keys to move focus from one button to another button); inthese implementations, the focus selector moves in accordance withmovement of focus between different regions of the user interface.Without regard to the specific form taken by the focus selector, thefocus selector is generally the user interface element (or contact on atouch screen display) that is controlled by the user so as tocommunicate the user's intended interaction with the user interface(e.g., by indicating, to the device, the element of the user interfacewith which the user is intending to interact). For example, the locationof a focus selector (e.g., a cursor, a contact, or a selection box) overa respective button while a press input is detected on thetouch-sensitive surface (e.g., a touchpad or touch screen) will indicatethat the user is intending to activate the respective button (as opposedto other user interface elements shown on a display of the device).

As used in the specification and claims, the term “characteristicintensity” of a contact refers to a characteristic of the contact basedon one or more intensities of the contact. In some embodiments, thecharacteristic intensity is based on multiple intensity samples. Thecharacteristic intensity is, optionally, based on a predefined number ofintensity samples, or a set of intensity samples collected during apredetermined time period (e.g., 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10seconds) relative to a predefined event (e.g., after detecting thecontact, prior to detecting liftoff of the contact, before or afterdetecting a start of movement of the contact, prior to detecting an endof the contact, before or after detecting an increase in intensity ofthe contact, and/or before or after detecting a decrease in intensity ofthe contact). A characteristic intensity of a contact is, optionallybased on one or more of: a maximum value of the intensities of thecontact, a mean value of the intensities of the contact, an averagevalue of the intensities of the contact, a top 10 percentile value ofthe intensities of the contact, a value at the half maximum of theintensities of the contact, a value at the 90 percent maximum of theintensities of the contact, or the like. In some embodiments, theduration of the contact is used in determining the characteristicintensity (e.g., when the characteristic intensity is an average of theintensity of the contact over time). In some embodiments, thecharacteristic intensity is compared to a set of one or more intensitythresholds to determine whether an operation has been performed by auser. For example, the set of one or more intensity thresholds mayinclude a first intensity threshold and a second intensity threshold. Inthis example, a contact with a characteristic intensity that does notexceed the first threshold results in a first operation, a contact witha characteristic intensity that exceeds the first intensity thresholdand does not exceed the second intensity threshold results in a secondoperation, and a contact with a characteristic intensity that exceedsthe second threshold results in a third operation. In some embodiments,a comparison between the characteristic intensity and one or morethresholds is used to determine whether or not to perform one or moreoperations (e.g., whether to perform a respective operation or forgoperforming the respective operation) rather than being used to determinewhether to perform a first operation or a second operation.

In some embodiments, a portion of a gesture is identified for purposesof determining a characteristic intensity. For example, atouch-sensitive surface may receive a continuous swipe contacttransitioning from a start location and reaching an end location, atwhich point the intensity of the contact increases. In this example, thecharacteristic intensity of the contact at the end location may be basedon only a portion of the continuous swipe contact, and not the entireswipe contact (e.g., only the portion of the swipe contact at the endlocation). In some embodiments, a smoothing algorithm may be applied tothe intensities of the swipe contact prior to determining thecharacteristic intensity of the contact. For example, the smoothingalgorithm optionally includes one or more of: an unweightedsliding-average smoothing algorithm, a triangular smoothing algorithm, amedian filter smoothing algorithm, and/or an exponential smoothingalgorithm. In some circumstances, these smoothing algorithms eliminatenarrow spikes or dips in the intensities of the swipe contact forpurposes of determining a characteristic intensity.

The intensity of a contact on the touch-sensitive surface may becharacterized relative to one or more intensity thresholds, such as acontact-detection intensity threshold, a light press intensitythreshold, a deep press intensity threshold, and/or one or more otherintensity thresholds. In some embodiments, the light press intensitythreshold corresponds to an intensity at which the device will performoperations typically associated with clicking a button of a physicalmouse or a trackpad. In some embodiments, the deep press intensitythreshold corresponds to an intensity at which the device will performoperations that are different from operations typically associated withclicking a button of a physical mouse or a trackpad. In someembodiments, when a contact is detected with a characteristic intensitybelow the light press intensity threshold (e.g., and above a nominalcontact-detection intensity threshold below which the contact is nolonger detected), the device will move a focus selector in accordancewith movement of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface withoutperforming an operation associated with the light press intensitythreshold or the deep press intensity threshold. Generally, unlessotherwise stated, these intensity thresholds are consistent betweendifferent sets of user interface figures.

An increase of characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensitybelow the light press intensity threshold to an intensity between thelight press intensity threshold and the deep press intensity thresholdis sometimes referred to as a “light press” input. An increase ofcharacteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity below the deeppress intensity threshold to an intensity above the deep press intensitythreshold is sometimes referred to as a “deep press” input. An increaseof characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity below thecontact-detection intensity threshold to an intensity between thecontact-detection intensity threshold and the light press intensitythreshold is sometimes referred to as detecting the contact on thetouch-surface. A decrease of characteristic intensity of the contactfrom an intensity above the contact-detection intensity threshold to anintensity below the contact-detection intensity threshold is sometimesreferred to as detecting liftoff of the contact from the touch-surface.In some embodiments, the contact-detection intensity threshold is zero.In some embodiments, the contact-detection intensity threshold isgreater than zero.

In some embodiments described herein, one or more operations areperformed in response to detecting a gesture that includes a respectivepress input or in response to detecting the respective press inputperformed with a respective contact (or a plurality of contacts), wherethe respective press input is detected based at least in part ondetecting an increase in intensity of the contact (or plurality ofcontacts) above a press-input intensity threshold. In some embodiments,the respective operation is performed in response to detecting theincrease in intensity of the respective contact above the press-inputintensity threshold (e.g., a “down stroke” of the respective pressinput). In some embodiments, the press input includes an increase inintensity of the respective contact above the press-input intensitythreshold and a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact belowthe press-input intensity threshold, and the respective operation isperformed in response to detecting the subsequent decrease in intensityof the respective contact below the press-input threshold (e.g., an “upstroke” of the respective press input).

In some embodiments, the device employs intensity hysteresis to avoidaccidental inputs sometimes termed “jitter,” where the device defines orselects a hysteresis intensity threshold with a predefined relationshipto the press-input intensity threshold (e.g., the hysteresis intensitythreshold is X intensity units lower than the press-input intensitythreshold or the hysteresis intensity threshold is 75%, 90%, or somereasonable proportion of the press-input intensity threshold). Thus, insome embodiments, the press input includes an increase in intensity ofthe respective contact above the press-input intensity threshold and asubsequent decrease in intensity of the contact below the hysteresisintensity threshold that corresponds to the press-input intensitythreshold, and the respective operation is performed in response todetecting the subsequent decrease in intensity of the respective contactbelow the hysteresis intensity threshold (e.g., an “up stroke” of therespective press input). Similarly, in some embodiments, the press inputis detected only when the device detects an increase in intensity of thecontact from an intensity at or below the hysteresis intensity thresholdto an intensity at or above the press-input intensity threshold and,optionally, a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact to anintensity at or below the hysteresis intensity, and the respectiveoperation is performed in response to detecting the press input (e.g.,the increase in intensity of the contact or the decrease in intensity ofthe contact, depending on the circumstances).

For ease of explanation, the descriptions of operations performed inresponse to a press input associated with a press-input intensitythreshold or in response to a gesture including the press input are,optionally, triggered in response to detecting either: an increase inintensity of a contact above the press-input intensity threshold, anincrease in intensity of a contact from an intensity below thehysteresis intensity threshold to an intensity above the press-inputintensity threshold, a decrease in intensity of the contact below thepress-input intensity threshold, and/or a decrease in intensity of thecontact below the hysteresis intensity threshold corresponding to thepress-input intensity threshold. Additionally, in examples where anoperation is described as being performed in response to detecting adecrease in intensity of a contact below the press-input intensitythreshold, the operation is, optionally, performed in response todetecting a decrease in intensity of the contact below a hysteresisintensity threshold corresponding to, and lower than, the press-inputintensity threshold.

3. Digital Assistant System

FIG. 7A illustrates a block diagram of digital assistant system 700 inaccordance with various examples. In some examples, digital assistantsystem 700 can be implemented on a standalone computer system. In someexamples, digital assistant system 700 can be distributed acrossmultiple computers. In some examples, some of the modules and functionsof the digital assistant can be divided into a server portion and aclient portion, where the client portion resides on one or more userdevices (e.g., devices 104, 122, 200, 400, or 600) and communicates withthe server portion (e.g., server system 108) through one or morenetworks, e.g., as shown in FIG. 1. In some examples, digital assistantsystem 700 can be an implementation of server system 108 (and/or DAserver 106) shown in FIG. 1. It should be noted that digital assistantsystem 700 is only one example of a digital assistant system, and thatdigital assistant system 700 can have more or fewer components thanshown, may combine two or more components, or may have a differentconfiguration or arrangement of the components. The various componentsshown in FIG. 7A can be implemented in hardware, software instructionsfor execution by one or more processors, firmware, including one or moresignal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits, or acombination thereof.

Digital assistant system 700 can include memory 702, one or moreprocessors 704, input/output (I/O) interface 706, and networkcommunications interface 708. These components can communicate with oneanother over one or more communication buses or signal lines 710.

In some examples, memory 702 can include a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium, such as high-speed random access memory and/ora non-volatile computer-readable storage medium (e.g., one or moremagnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or othernon-volatile solid-state memory devices).

In some examples, I/O interface 706 can couple input/output devices 716of digital assistant system 700, such as displays, keyboards, touchscreens, and microphones, to user interface module 722. I/O interface706, in conjunction with user interface module 722, can receive userinputs (e.g., voice input, keyboard inputs, touch inputs, etc.) andprocesses them accordingly. In some examples, e.g., when the digitalassistant is implemented on a standalone user device, digital assistantsystem 700 can include any of the components and I/O communicationinterfaces described with respect to devices 200, 400, or 600 in FIGS.2A, 4, 6A-B, respectively. In some examples, digital assistant system700 can represent the server portion of a digital assistantimplementation, and can interact with the user through a client-sideportion residing on a user device (e.g., devices 104, 200, 400, or 600).

In some examples, the network communications interface 708 can includewired communication port(s) 712 and/or wireless transmission andreception circuitry 714. The wired communication port(s) can receive andsend communication signals via one or more wired interfaces, e.g.,Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc. The wirelesscircuitry 714 can receive and send RF signals and/or optical signalsfrom/to communications networks and other communications devices. Thewireless communications can use any of a plurality of communicationsstandards, protocols, and technologies, such as GSM, EDGE, CDMA, TDMA,Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, VoIP, Wi-MAX, or any other suitable communicationprotocol. Network communications interface 708 can enable communicationbetween digital assistant system 700 with networks, such as theInternet, an intranet, and/or a wireless network, such as a cellulartelephone network, a wireless local area network (LAN), and/or ametropolitan area network (MAN), and other devices.

In some examples, memory 702, or the computer-readable storage media ofmemory 702, can store programs, modules, instructions, and datastructures including all or a subset of: operating system 718,communications module 720, user interface module 722, one or moreapplications 724, and digital assistant module 726. In particular,memory 702, or the computer-readable storage media of memory 702, canstore instructions for performing processes 800, 900, described below.One or more processors 704 can execute these programs, modules, andinstructions, and reads/writes from/to the data structures.

Operating system 718 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, iOS, OS X,WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) can includevarious software components and/or drivers for controlling and managinggeneral system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control,power management, etc.) and facilitates communications between varioushardware, firmware, and software components.

Communications module 720 can facilitate communications between digitalassistant system 700 with other devices over network communicationsinterface 708. For example, communications module 720 can communicatewith RF circuitry 208 of electronic devices such as devices 200, 400,and 600 shown in FIG. 2A, 4, 6A-B, respectively. Communications module720 can also include various components for handling data received bywireless circuitry 714 and/or wired communications port 712.

User interface module 722 can receive commands and/or inputs from a uservia I/O interface 706 (e.g., from a keyboard, touch screen, pointingdevice, controller, and/or microphone), and generate user interfaceobjects on a display. User interface module 722 can also prepare anddeliver outputs (e.g., speech, sound, animation, text, icons,vibrations, haptic feedback, light, etc.) to the user via the I/Ointerface 706 (e.g., through displays, audio channels, speakers,touch-pads, etc.).

Applications 724 can include programs and/or modules that are configuredto be executed by one or more processors 704. For example, if thedigital assistant system is implemented on a standalone user device,applications 724 can include user applications, such as games, acalendar application, a navigation application, or an email application.If digital assistant system 700 is implemented on a server, applications724 can include resource management applications, diagnosticapplications, or scheduling applications, for example.

Memory 702 can also store digital assistant module 726 (or the serverportion of a digital assistant). In some examples, digital assistantmodule 726 can include the following sub-modules, or a subset orsuperset thereof: input/output processing module 728, speech-to-text(STT) processing module 730, natural language processing module 732,dialogue flow processing module 734, task flow processing module 736,service processing module 738, and speech synthesis module 740. Each ofthese modules can have access to one or more of the following systems ordata and models of the digital assistant module 726, or a subset orsuperset thereof: ontology 760, vocabulary index 744, user data 748,task flow models 754, service models 756, and ASR systems.

In some examples, using the processing modules, data, and modelsimplemented in digital assistant module 726, the digital assistant canperform at least some of the following: converting speech input intotext; identifying a user's intent expressed in a natural language inputreceived from the user; actively eliciting and obtaining informationneeded to fully infer the user's intent (e.g., by disambiguating words,games, intentions, etc.); determining the task flow for fulfilling theinferred intent; and executing the task flow to fulfill the inferredintent.

In some examples, as shown in FIG. 7B, I/O processing module 728 caninteract with the user through I/O devices 716 in FIG. 7A or with a userdevice (e.g., devices 104, 200, 400, or 600) through networkcommunications interface 708 in FIG. 7A to obtain user input (e.g., aspeech input) and to provide responses (e.g., as speech outputs) to theuser input. I/O processing module 728 can optionally obtain contextualinformation associated with the user input from the user device, alongwith or shortly after the receipt of the user input. The contextualinformation can include user-specific data, vocabulary, and/orpreferences relevant to the user input. In some examples, the contextualinformation also includes software and hardware states of the userdevice at the time the user request is received, and/or informationrelated to the surrounding environment of the user at the time that theuser request was received. In some examples, I/O processing module 728can also send follow-up questions to, and receive answers from, the userregarding the user request. When a user request is received by I/Oprocessing module 728 and the user request can include speech input, I/Oprocessing module 728 can forward the speech input to STT processingmodule 730 (or speech recognizer) for speech-to-text conversions.

STT processing module 730 can include one or more ASR systems. The oneor more ASR systems can process the speech input that is receivedthrough I/O processing module 728 to produce a recognition result. EachASR system can include a front-end speech pre-processor. The front-endspeech pre-processor can extract representative features from the speechinput. For example, the front-end speech pre-processor can perform aFourier transform on the speech input to extract spectral features thatcharacterize the speech input as a sequence of representativemulti-dimensional vectors. Further, each ASR system can include one ormore speech recognition models (e.g., acoustic models and/or languagemodels) and can implement one or more speech recognition engines.Examples of speech recognition models can include Hidden Markov Models,Gaussian-Mixture Models, Deep Neural Network Models, n-gram languagemodels, and other statistical models. Examples of speech recognitionengines can include the dynamic time warping based engines and weightedfinite-state transducers (WFST) based engines. The one or more speechrecognition models and the one or more speech recognition engines can beused to process the extracted representative features of the front-endspeech pre-processor to produce intermediate recognitions results (e.g.,phonemes, phonemic strings, and sub-words), and ultimately, textrecognition results (e.g., words, word strings, or sequence of tokens).In some examples, the speech input can be processed at least partiallyby a third-party service or on the user's device (e.g., device 104, 200,400, or 600) to produce the recognition result. Once STT processingmodule 730 produces recognition results containing a text string (e.g.,words, or sequence of words, or sequence of tokens), the recognitionresult can be passed to natural language processing module 732 forintent deduction.

More details on the speech-to-text processing are described in U.S.Utility application Ser. No. 13/236,942 for “Consolidating SpeechRecognition Results,” filed on Sep. 20, 2011, the entire disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

In some examples, STT processing module 730 can include and/or access avocabulary of recognizable words via phonetic alphabet conversion module731. Each vocabulary word can be associated with one or more candidatepronunciations of the word represented in a speech recognition phoneticalphabet. In particular, the vocabulary of recognizable words caninclude a word that is associated with a plurality of candidatepronunciations. For example, the vocabulary may include the word“tomato” that is associated with the candidate pronunciations of /

/ and /

/. Further, vocabulary words can be associated with custom candidatepronunciations that are based on previous speech inputs from the user.Such custom candidate pronunciations can be stored in STT processingmodule 730 and can be associated with a particular user via the user'sprofile on the device. In some examples, the candidate pronunciationsfor words can be determined based on the spelling of the word and one ormore linguistic and/or phonetic rules. In some examples, the candidatepronunciations can be manually generated, e.g., based on known canonicalpronunciations.

In some examples, the candidate pronunciations can be ranked based onthe commonness of the candidate pronunciation. For example, thecandidate pronunciation /

/ can be ranked higher than /

/, because the former is a more commonly used pronunciation (e.g., amongall users, for users in a particular geographical region, or for anyother appropriate subset of users). In some examples, candidatepronunciations can be ranked based on whether the candidatepronunciation is a custom candidate pronunciation associated with theuser. For example, custom candidate pronunciations can be ranked higherthan canonical candidate pronunciations. This can be useful forrecognizing proper nouns having a unique pronunciation that deviatesfrom canonical pronunciation. In some examples, candidate pronunciationscan be associated with one or more speech characteristics, such asgeographic origin, nationality, or ethnicity. For example, the candidatepronunciation /

/ can be associated with the United States, whereas the candidatepronunciation /

/ can be associated with Great Britain. Further, the rank of thecandidate pronunciation can be based on one or more characteristics(e.g., geographic origin, nationality, ethnicity, etc.) of the userstored in the user's profile on the device. For example, it can bedetermined from the user's profile that the user is associated with theUnited States. Based on the user being associated with the UnitedStates, the candidate pronunciation /

/ (associated with the United States) can be ranked higher than thecandidate pronunciation /

/ (associated with Great Britain). In some examples, one of the rankedcandidate pronunciations can be selected as a predicted pronunciation(e.g., the most likely pronunciation).

When a speech input is received, STT processing module 730 can be usedto determine the phonemes corresponding to the speech input (e.g., usingan acoustic model), and then attempt to determine words that match thephonemes (e.g., using a language model). For example, if STT processingmodule 730 can first identify the sequence of phonemes /

/ corresponding to a portion of the speech input, it can then determine,based on vocabulary index 744, that this sequence corresponds to theword “tomato.”

In some examples, STT processing module 730 can use approximate matchingtechniques to determine words in an utterance. Thus, for example, theSTT processing module 730 can determine that the sequence of phonemes /

/ corresponds to the word “tomato,” even if that particular sequence ofphonemes is not one of the candidate sequence of phonemes for that word.

Natural language processing module 732 (“natural language processor”) ofthe digital assistant can take the sequence of words or tokens (“tokensequence”) generated by STT processing module 730, and attempt toassociate the token sequence with one or more “actionable intents”recognized by the digital assistant. An “actionable intent” canrepresent a task that can be performed by the digital assistant, and canhave an associated task flow implemented in task flow models 754. Theassociated task flow can be a series of programmed actions and stepsthat the digital assistant takes in order to perform the task. The scopeof a digital assistant's capabilities can be dependent on the number andvariety of task flows that have been implemented and stored in task flowmodels 754, or in other words, on the number and variety of “actionableintents” that the digital assistant recognizes. The effectiveness of thedigital assistant, however, can also be dependent on the assistant'sability to infer the correct “actionable intent(s)” from the userrequest expressed in natural language.

In some examples, in addition to the sequence of words or tokensobtained from STT processing module 730, natural language processingmodule 732 can also receive contextual information associated with theuser request, e.g., from I/O processing module 728. The natural languageprocessing module 732 can optionally use the contextual information toclarify, supplement, and/or further define the information contained inthe token sequence received from STT processing module 730. Thecontextual information can include, for example, user preferences,hardware, and/or software states of the user device, sensor informationcollected before, during, or shortly after the user request, priorinteractions (e.g., dialogue) between the digital assistant and theuser, and the like. As described herein, contextual information can bedynamic, and can change with time, location, content of the dialogue,and other factors.

In some examples, the natural language processing can be based on, e.g.,ontology 760. Ontology 760 can be a hierarchical structure containingmany nodes, each node representing either an “actionable intent” or a“property” relevant to one or more of the “actionable intents” or other“properties.” As noted above, an “actionable intent” can represent atask that the digital assistant is capable of performing, i.e., it is“actionable” or can be acted on. A “property” can represent a parameterassociated with an actionable intent or a sub-aspect of anotherproperty. A linkage between an actionable intent node and a propertynode in ontology 760 can define how a parameter represented by theproperty node pertains to the task represented by the actionable intentnode.

In some examples, ontology 760 can be made up of actionable intent nodesand property nodes. Within ontology 760, each actionable intent node canbe linked to one or more property nodes either directly or through oneor more intermediate property nodes. Similarly, each property node canbe linked to one or more actionable intent nodes either directly orthrough one or more intermediate property nodes. For example, as shownin FIG. 7C, ontology 760 can include a “restaurant reservation” node(i.e., an actionable intent node). Property nodes “restaurant,”“date/time” (for the reservation), and “party size” can each be directlylinked to the actionable intent node (i.e., the “restaurant reservation”node).

In addition, property nodes “cuisine,” “price range,” “phone number,”and “location” can be sub-nodes of the property node “restaurant,” andcan each be linked to the “restaurant reservation” node (i.e., theactionable intent node) through the intermediate property node“restaurant.” For another example, as shown in FIG. 7C, ontology 760 canalso include a “set reminder” node (i.e., another actionable intentnode). Property nodes “date/time” (for setting the reminder) and“subject” (for the reminder) can each be linked to the “set reminder”node. Since the property “date/time” can be relevant to both the task ofmaking a restaurant reservation and the task of setting a reminder, theproperty node “date/time” can be linked to both the “restaurantreservation” node and the “set reminder” node in ontology 760.

An actionable intent node, along with its linked concept nodes, can bedescribed as a “domain.” In the present discussion, each domain can beassociated with a respective actionable intent, and refers to the groupof nodes (and the relationships there between) associated with theparticular actionable intent. For example, ontology 760 shown in FIG. 7Ccan include an example of restaurant reservation domain 762 and anexample of reminder domain 764 within ontology 760. The restaurantreservation domain includes the actionable intent node “restaurantreservation,” property nodes “restaurant,” “date/time,” and “partysize,” and sub-property nodes “cuisine,” “price range,” “phone number,”and “location.” Reminder domain 764 can include the actionable intentnode “set reminder,” and property nodes “subject” and “date/time.” Insome examples, ontology 760 can be made up of many domains. Each domaincan share one or more property nodes with one or more other domains. Forexample, the “date/time” property node can be associated with manydifferent domains (e.g., a scheduling domain, a travel reservationdomain, a movie ticket domain, etc.), in addition to restaurantreservation domain 762 and reminder domain 764.

While FIG. 7C illustrates two example domains within ontology 760, otherdomains can include, for example, “find a movie,” “initiate a phonecall,” “find directions,” “schedule a meeting,” “send a message,” and“provide an answer to a question,” “read a list,” “providing navigationinstructions,” “provide instructions for a task” and so on. A “send amessage” domain can be associated with a “send a message” actionableintent node, and may further include property nodes such as“recipient(s),” “message type,” and “message body.” The property node“recipient” can be further defined, for example, by the sub-propertynodes such as “recipient name” and “message address.”

In some examples, ontology 760 can include all the domains (and henceactionable intents) that the digital assistant is capable ofunderstanding and acting upon. In some examples, ontology 760 can bemodified, such as by adding or removing entire domains or nodes, or bymodifying relationships between the nodes within the ontology 760.

In some examples, nodes associated with multiple related actionableintents can be clustered under a “super domain” in ontology 760. Forexample, a “travel” super-domain can include a cluster of property nodesand actionable intent nodes related to travel. The actionable intentnodes related to travel can include “airline reservation,” “hotelreservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” “find points of interest,”and so on. The actionable intent nodes under the same super domain(e.g., the “travel” super domain) can have many property nodes incommon. For example, the actionable intent nodes for “airlinereservation,” “hotel reservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” and“find points of interest” can share one or more of the property nodes“start location,” “destination,” “departure date/time,” “arrivaldate/time,” and “party size.”

In some examples, each node in ontology 760 can be associated with a setof words and/or phrases that are relevant to the property or actionableintent represented by the node. The respective set of words and/orphrases associated with each node can be the so-called “vocabulary”associated with the node. The respective set of words and/or phrasesassociated with each node can be stored in vocabulary index 744 inassociation with the property or actionable intent represented by thenode. For example, returning to FIG. 7B, the vocabulary associated withthe node for the property of “restaurant” can include words such as“food,” “drinks,” “cuisine,” “hungry,” “eat,” “pizza,” “fast food,”“meal,” and so on. For another example, the vocabulary associated withthe node for the actionable intent of “initiate a phone call” caninclude words and phrases such as “call,” “phone,” “dial,” “ring,” “callthis number,” “make a call to,” and so on. The vocabulary index 744 canoptionally include words and phrases in different languages.

Natural language processing module 732 can receive the token sequence(e.g., a text string) from STT processing module 730, and determine whatnodes are implicated by the words in the token sequence. In someexamples, if a word or phrase in the token sequence is found to beassociated with one or more nodes in ontology 760 (via vocabulary index744), the word or phrase can “trigger” or “activate” those nodes. Basedon the quantity and/or relative importance of the activated nodes,natural language processing module 732 can select one of the actionableintents as the task that the user intended the digital assistant toperform. In some examples, the domain that has the most “triggered”nodes can be selected. In some examples, the domain having the highestconfidence value (e.g., based on the relative importance of its varioustriggered nodes) can be selected. In some examples, the domain can beselected based on a combination of the number and the importance of thetriggered nodes. In some examples, additional factors are considered inselecting the node as well, such as whether the digital assistant haspreviously correctly interpreted a similar request from a user.

User data 748 can include user-specific information, such asuser-specific vocabulary, user preferences, user address, user's defaultand secondary languages, user's contact list, and other short-term orlong-term information for each user. In some examples, natural languageprocessing module 732 can use the user-specific information tosupplement the information contained in the user input to further definethe user intent. For example, for a user request “invite my friends tomy birthday party,” natural language processing module 732 can be ableto access user data 748 to determine who the “friends” are and when andwhere the “birthday party” would be held, rather than requiring the userto provide such information explicitly in his/her request.

Other details of searching an ontology based on a token string isdescribed in U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 12/341,743 for “Methodand Apparatus for Searching Using An Active Ontology,” filed Dec. 22,2008, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference.

In some examples, once natural language processing module 732 identifiesan actionable intent (or domain) based on the user request, naturallanguage processing module 732 can generate a structured query torepresent the identified actionable intent. In some examples, thestructured query can include parameters for one or more nodes within thedomain for the actionable intent, and at least some of the parametersare populated with the specific information and requirements specifiedin the user request. For example, the user may say “Make me a dinnerreservation at a sushi place at 7.” In this case, natural languageprocessing module 732 can be able to correctly identify the actionableintent to be “restaurant reservation” based on the user input. Accordingto the ontology, a structured query for a “restaurant reservation”domain may include parameters such as {Cuisine}, {Time}, {Date}, {PartySize}, and the like. In some examples, based on the speech input and thetext derived from the speech input using STT processing module 730,natural language processing module 732 can generate a partial structuredquery for the restaurant reservation domain, where the partialstructured query includes the parameters {Cuisine=“Sushi”} and {Time=“7pm”}. However, in this example, the user's utterance containsinsufficient information to complete the structured query associatedwith the domain. Therefore, other necessary parameters such as {PartySize} and {Date} may not be specified in the structured query based onthe information currently available. In some examples, natural languageprocessing module 732 can populate some parameters of the structuredquery with received contextual information. For example, in someexamples, if the user requested a sushi restaurant “near me,” naturallanguage processing module 732 can populate a {location} parameter inthe structured query with GPS coordinates from the user device.

In some examples, natural language processing module 732 can pass thegenerated structured query (including any completed parameters) to taskflow processing module 736 (“task flow processor”). Task flow processingmodule 736 can be configured to receive the structured query fromnatural language processing module 732, complete the structured query,if necessary, and perform the actions required to “complete” the user'sultimate request. In some examples, the various procedures necessary tocomplete these tasks can be provided in task flow models 754. In someexamples, task flow models 754 can include procedures for obtainingadditional information from the user and task flows for performingactions associated with the actionable intent.

As described above, in order to complete a structured query, task flowprocessing module 736 may need to initiate additional dialogue with theuser in order to obtain additional information, and/or disambiguatepotentially ambiguous utterances. When such interactions are necessary,task flow processing module 736 can invoke dialogue flow processingmodule 734 to engage in a dialogue with the user. In some examples,dialogue flow processing module 734 can determine how (and/or when) toask the user for the additional information and receives and processesthe user responses. The questions can be provided to and answers can bereceived from the users through I/O processing module 728. In someexamples, dialogue flow processing module 734 can present dialogueoutput to the user via audio and/or visual output, and receives inputfrom the user via spoken or physical (e.g., clicking) responses.Continuing with the example above, when task flow processing module 736invokes dialogue flow processing module 734 to determine the “partysize” and “date” information for the structured query associated withthe domain “restaurant reservation,” dialogue flow processing module 734can generate questions such as “For how many people?” and “On whichday?” to pass to the user. Once answers are received from the user,dialogue flow processing module 734 can then populate the structuredquery with the missing information, or pass the information to task flowprocessing module 736 to complete the missing information from thestructured query.

Once task flow processing module 736 has completed the structured queryfor an actionable intent, task flow processing module 736 can proceed toperform the ultimate task associated with the actionable intent.Accordingly, task flow processing module 736 can execute the steps andinstructions in the task flow model according to the specific parameterscontained in the structured query. For example, the task flow model forthe actionable intent of “restaurant reservation” can include steps andinstructions for contacting a restaurant and actually requesting areservation for a particular party size at a particular time. Forexample, using a structured query such as: {restaurant reservation,restaurant=ABC Café, date=3/12/2012, time=7 pm, party size=5}, task flowprocessing module 736 can perform the steps of: (1) logging onto aserver of the ABC Caf{tilde over (e)} or a restaurant reservation systemsuch as OPENTABLE®, (2) entering the date, time, and party sizeinformation in a form on the website, (3) submitting the form, and (4)making a calendar entry for the reservation in the user's calendar.

In some examples, task flow processing module 736 can employ theassistance of service processing module 738 (“service processingmodule”) to complete a task requested in the user input or to provide aninformational answer requested in the user input. For example, serviceprocessing module 738 can act on behalf of task flow processing module736 to make a phone call, set a calendar entry, invoke a map search,invoke or interact with other user applications installed on the userdevice, and invoke or interact with third-party services (e.g., arestaurant reservation portal, a social networking website, a bankingportal, etc.). In some examples, the protocols and applicationprogramming interfaces (API) required by each service can be specifiedby a respective service model among service models 756. Serviceprocessing module 738 can access the appropriate service model for aservice and generate requests for the service in accordance with theprotocols and APIs required by the service according to the servicemodel.

For example, if a restaurant has enabled an online reservation service,the restaurant can submit a service model specifying the necessaryparameters for making a reservation and the APIs for communicating thevalues of the necessary parameter to the online reservation service.When requested by task flow processing module 736, service processingmodule 738 can establish a network connection with the onlinereservation service using the web address stored in the service model,and send the necessary parameters of the reservation (e.g., time, date,party size) to the online reservation interface in a format according tothe API of the online reservation service.

In some examples, natural language processing module 732, dialogue flowprocessing module 734, and task flow processing module 736 can be usedcollectively and iteratively to infer and define the user's intent,obtain information to further clarify and refine the user intent, andfinally generate a response (i.e., an output to the user, or thecompletion of a task) to fulfill the user's intent. The generatedresponse can be a dialogue response to the speech input that at leastpartially fulfills the user's intent. Further, in some examples, thegenerated response can be output as a speech output. In these examples,the generated response can be sent to speech synthesis module 740 (e.g.,speech synthesizer) where it can be processed to synthesize the dialogueresponse in speech form. In yet other examples, the generated responsecan be data content relevant to satisfying a user request in the speechinput.

Speech synthesis module 740 can be configured to synthesize speechoutputs for presentation to the user. Speech synthesis module 740synthesizes speech outputs based on text provided by the digitalassistant. For example, the generated dialogue response can be in theform of a text string. Speech synthesis module 740 can convert the textstring to an audible speech output. Speech synthesis module 740 can useany appropriate speech synthesis technique in order to generate speechoutputs from text, including, but not limited, to concatenativesynthesis, unit selection synthesis, diphone synthesis, domain-specificsynthesis, formant synthesis, articulatory synthesis, hidden Markovmodel (HMM) based synthesis, and sinewave synthesis. In some examples,speech synthesis module 740 can be configured to synthesize individualwords based on phonemic strings corresponding to the words. For example,a phonemic string can be associated with a word in the generateddialogue response. The phonemic string can be stored in metadataassociated with the word. Speech synthesis model 740 can be configuredto directly process the phonemic string in the metadata to synthesizethe word in speech form.

In some examples, instead of (or in addition to) using speech synthesismodule 740, speech synthesis can be performed on a remote device (e.g.,the server system 108), and the synthesized speech can be sent to theuser device for output to the user. For example, this can occur in someimplementations where outputs for a digital assistant are generated at aserver system. And because server systems generally have more processingpower or resources than a user device, it can be possible to obtainhigher quality speech outputs than would be practical with client-sidesynthesis.

Additional details on digital assistants can be found in the U.S.Utility application Ser. No. 12/987,982, entitled “Intelligent AutomatedAssistant,” filed Jan. 10, 2011, and U.S. Utility application Ser. No.13/251,088, entitled “Generating and Processing Task Items ThatRepresent Tasks to Perform,” filed Sep. 30, 2011, the entire disclosuresof which are incorporated herein by reference.

4. Processes for Operating a Digital Assistant

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram of a process 800 for operating adigital assistant in accordance with some embodiments. Process 800 isperformed, for example, using one or more electronic devices (e.g.,devices 104, 108, 200, 400, or 600) implementing a digital assistant. Insome examples, the process 800 is performed using a client-server system(e.g., system 100), and the blocks of the process 800 can be divided upin any manner between the server (e.g., DA server 106) and a clientdevice. Thus, while portions of the process 800 are described herein asbeing performed by particular devices of a client-server system, it willbe appreciated that the process 800 is not so limited. In otherexamples, the process 800 is performed using only a client device (e.g.,user device 104). In process 800, some blocks are, optionally, combined,the order of some blocks is, optionally, changed, and some blocks are,optionally, omitted. In some examples, additional steps may be performedin combination with the process 800.

At block 805, a natural-language user input is received by a userdevice, such as the user device 104 of FIG. 1. The natural-languageinput is, for example, a speech input or a text input. In some examples,the natural-language input may include a request for the user device,and/or another device, to perform a task. For instance, in the example“Send a car to 1200 Main Street,” the natural-language input may includea request for a user device to reserve a car using a ride-bookingservice. In some examples, the natural-language input may furtherspecify one or more parameters for the requested task. “1200 MainStreet”, for instance, specifies a pick-up location for the carreservation. In the example, “Order my usual from Domino's,” thenatural-language input may include a request for a user device to orderfood from the pizza chain Domino's. “my usual” may further specify,contextually, what food is to be ordered.

At block 810, an intent, and optionally, one or more parametersassociated with the intent, are identified. The intent and parametersmay be derived from the natural-language user input, for example. Asdescribed, intents may correspond to tasks requested by a user.Accordingly, identifying (e.g., determining) an intent may includeidentifying a task specified in the natural-language user input and/orinferring an intent corresponding to a requested task based on languageand/or context of the natural-language user input. Intents maycorrespond to any type of tasks performed by a user device and, inparticular, may correspond to tasks performed by one or moreapplications of a user device, as described in further detail below.

In some examples, intents are associated with (e.g., included in) one ormore domains (e.g., intent categories, set of intents). Each domain mayinclude a particular class of intents, allowing for intents to beintuitively grouped. For example, intents to reserve a car, cancel a carreservation, and/or any other intents directed to tasks commonlyassociated with ride-booking may be included in a ride-booking domain.In another example, intents to check-in to a flight, cancel a flight,reschedule a flight, retrieve flight information, and/or any otherintents directed to tasks commonly associated with air travel may beincluded in an air travel domain. In another example, intents to providedirections, retrieve traffic information, and/or any other intentsdirected to tasks commonly associated with navigation may be included ina navigation domain. In yet another example, intents to send payments,receive payments, and/or any other intents directed to tasks commonlyassociated with financial transactions may be included in a financialtransactions domain.

Identifying parameters may include identifying portions of thenatural-language input that specify a manner in which a taskcorresponding to the intent is to be performed. Parameters may, forinstance, specify locations (e.g., addresses or places of interest),times, dates, contacts, types, text (e.g., to be inserted into an emailor message), quantities (e.g., distance, money) and, in some instances,names of software applications to perform the task. Parameters mayfurther specify other conditions for tasks, examples of which aredescribed herein.

Parameters may be identified, for instance, using one or more detectors.Each of the detectors may be configured to parse the natural-languageuser input (e.g., a textual representation of the natural-language userinput) and identify one or more respective data types. By way ofexample, a first detector may be configured to identify user contactsand a second detector may be configured to identify addresses. Otherdetectors may identify data types including, but not limited to, phonenumbers, names, persons of interest, places of interest, URLs, times,flight numbers, package tracking numbers, and dates.

In some examples, words of a custom vocabulary may be identified asparameters. For instance, one or more detectors may be configured toidentify custom vocabulary of one or more applications, respectively.Custom vocabulary of an application may include a name of theapplication (e.g., Uber, Lyft, Instagram, Flickr, WeChat, WhatsApp,LINE, Viber) and/or may include other terms uniquely associated with theapplication (e.g., UberX, DM, Lyftline, ZipCar).

In some examples, one or more applications may register with anapplication registration service. The service may be hosted by orotherwise accessible to the server 108 and/or the user device 104.Registering in this manner may include specifying one or more customvocabulary terms associated with the application and, optionally, one ormore language models for the custom vocabulary terms. The languagemodels may, for instance, provide one or more pronunciations for each ofthe custom vocabulary terms. Language models provided in this manner maythereafter be used to help identify use of such custom terms duringanalysis of natural-language user inputs. In some examples, customvocabulary may be included in the vocabulary index 744 (FIG. 7B).

In some examples, one or more parameters may be inferred from thenatural-language user input. In the example “Get me a ride to thestadium,” for instance, it may be inferred that one parameter associatedwith the intent is a location of the user. In another example, “Pay Johnback for the meal,” it may be inferred that one parameter associatedwith the intent is an amount of money.

In some examples, an intent is identified based on the natural-languageuser input, and parameters associated with the intent are thereafteridentified. Further, in some examples, parameters not associated withthe intent are not identified. By way of example, an intentcorresponding to directions (e.g., driving directions) may be associatedwith parameters specifying one or more locations (e.g., an origin and/ora destination), and/or a mode of transit. Consider, for instance, theexample “Get me real-time driving directions to 1200 Main Street.” Inthis instance, the identified intent corresponds to a task for providingdirections, “driving” is a parameter specifying a mode of transit, and“1200 Main Street” is a parameter specifying a location. The portion ofthe user input “real-time” is not a parameter associated with theidentified intent. Accordingly, while “real-time” may be a validparameter for some intents, “real-time” will not be identified as aparameter during operation.

In other examples, one or more parameters first may be identified andthe intent may be identified based on the identified one or moreparameters. In yet other examples, the intent and parameters associatedwith the intent may be identified concurrently.

In some examples, intents and parameters of a natural-language userinput are identified by the user device, such as the user device 104 ofFIG. 1. In other examples, the user device provides the natural-languageuser input (or a representation thereof) to a server, such as the server108 of FIG. 1, and the server identifies (e.g., determines) intents andparameters of the natural-language user input, as described. Thereafterthe server provides (e.g., transmits) the identified intents andparameters to the user device.

Optionally, once an intent and any parameters have been identified, theuser device confirms identified intents and/or parameters with a user ofthe user device, and in some instances, confirms inferred parameterswith the user of the user device. Confirming in this manner may includeprompting a user to confirm the identified intent and all identifiedparameters associated with the intent in response to a natural-languagequery. By way of example, in response to the user input “Get me a rideto the airport,” the user device may provide a natural-language query“Do you want a ride to the airport from your current location?” Thenatural-language query provided by the user device may be provided to auser as text, using a touch-sensitive display of the user device, and/ormay be provided to a user as speech using an audio output component ofthe user device (e.g., speaker 211 of FIG. 2). The user may respond tothe natural-language query, for instance, by providing anatural-language user input to the user device.

Optionally, the user device confirms individual parameters. In someexamples, this may include prompting a user to confirm one or moreparameters. By way of example, in response to the user input “Get me aride to the station,” the user device may provide a natural languagequery “Do you mean Penn Station?” As another example, in response to theuser input “Pay John $5.00,” the user device may provide a naturallanguage query “Do you mean John Smith?” Natural-language queriesprovided by the user device may be provided to a user as text, using atouch-sensitive display of the user device and/or may be provided to auser as speech using an audio output component of the user device (e.g.,speaker 211 of FIG. 2). The user may respond to the natural-languagequery, for instance, by providing a natural-language user input to theuser device.

In some examples, one or more parameters are contextual. Accordingly,the user device may determine (e.g., resolve) one or more parametersbased on context information. Context information may be contextinformation of the user device (or any data stored therein) and/orcontext information of a user of the user device. By way of example, anatural-language user input may recite “Get me a car at my house.”Because “my house” is a contextual parameter and does not specify anactual location, the user device may determine a location of the userdevice and identify the determined location as a parameter (i.e., inlieu of “my house”). As another example, a natural-language user inputmay recite “Call him back.” Because “him” is a contextual parameter anddoes not specify a specific contact, the user device may determine acontact intended by “him” and pass the contact as a parameter (i.e., inlieu of “him”).

In some examples, identified intents and parameters are implemented asan intent object. When implemented as such, each intent object is anobject (e.g., data structure, programming object) and corresponds to arespective intent. Each intent object may include one or more fields(e.g., instance variables) corresponding to one or more parameters,respectively. For example, an intent object corresponding to aride-booking intent may be generated (e.g., instantiated) like thefollowing pseudocode:

public final class RideBookingIntent {  public final static StringINTENT_TYPE = “RideBookingIntent”;  public final parameter<Location>pickupLocation;  public final parameter<Location> dropOffLocation; public final parameter<dataString> vehicleType;  public finalparameter<Integer> partySize;  public final parameter<dateTime>pickupTime;  private RideBookingIntent(Location p, Location d,dataString v,  Integer p, dateTime pt) {   pickupLocation = p;  dropOffLocation = d;   vehicleType = v;   partySize = p;   pickupTime= pt; } }As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill, the pseudocode above isexemplary, and an intent object may be implemented in other manners.

By implementing an intent as an intent object, intents may be languageagnostic. As described, intents may be derived from natural-languageuser inputs. A same intent, therefore, may be derived fromnatural-language inputs provided in any number of spoken languages. Byway of example, the English natural-language user input “Send an Uber to1200 Park Avenue” and the German natural-language user input “Senden Sieeine Uber auf 1200 Park Avenue” would each result in a same intent beingidentified (and result in a same intent object).

At block 815, a software application associated with the intent may beidentified (e.g., selected). Generally, this may include identifying oneor more software applications configured to perform a task correspondingto the intent.

In some examples, identifying software applications may includedetermining one or more domains corresponding to an intent andidentifying applications corresponding to the domain(s). As described,one or more software applications may be registered with an applicationregistration service. Registering in this manner may include specifyingwhich domains (e.g., ride-booking domain, air travel domain, navigationdomain) correspond to the software application. An applicationcorresponding to a domain may support each of the intents specified bythe domain or may support only some intents specified by the domain. Insome examples, applications may be registered with individual intents,and identifying applications may include identifying applicationscorresponding to the identified intent.

In some examples, applications are identified according to theidentified parameters. By way of example, based on a user input “Get mea black car to the airport,” an intent to reserve a car using aride-booking service and a parameter specifying a type of car (i.e.“black car”) may be identified. Although several available applicationsmay be configured to reserve a car generally, only those applicationsconfigured to reserve a “black car” may be identified. As anotherexample, based on a user input “Send a message to Sam saying ‘Hello!’”Although several applications may be configured to send a message, onlythose applications having contact information for a contact Sam may beidentified.

In some examples, only applications installed on and/or accessible tothe user device are identified. For instance, although several availableapplications may be configured to perform a task, only those accessibleto the user device are identified. Accessible applications includeapplications residing and/or installed on the user device and furtherinclude applications that may be remotely accessed by the user device,for instance on one or more other devices.

Thus, in at least some embodiments, identified applications areapplications configured to perform a task according to identifiedparameters and accessible to the user device. In some examples, multipleapplications may satisfy these criteria, yet the user device may wish toidentify fewer applications, or a single application. Accordingly,applications may further be identified based on previous use of theapplications by the user device. In some examples, for a given intent,an application most recently used to perform a task corresponding to theintent is identified. Consider the user input “Place a call to Rob” inwhich an intent (i.e., place a call) and a parameter (i.e. “Rob”) may beidentified. In this example, the application last used to place a callis identified. In other examples, an application most commonly used toperform tasks corresponding to intent is identified. For the sameexample, an application most commonly used to place calls is identified.In some examples, applications are further selected in accordance withone or more parameters. For instance, an application recently used toplace a call to the contact Rob is identified, or an application mostcommonly used to place a call to the contact Rob is identified. In someexamples, a default application may be specified for one or moreparticular tasks and/or parameters, for instance, by a user or a digitalassistant. A user may specify, for instance, that a first application isto be used when calling a first contact and a second application is tobe used when calling a second contact.

As described, in some instances, a natural-language user input mayinclude custom vocabulary that may be identified as one or moreparameters. In some examples, such custom vocabulary includesapplication names, and accordingly an application may be identifiedbased on presence of custom vocabulary in the input. A natural-languageuser input may, for instance, recite “Call Rob using Skype.” Inresponse, the software application Skype may be the identified softwareapplication. In another example, a natural-language input may recite“Play The Beatles on Spotify,” and in response, the software applicationSpotify may be the identified software application.

Custom vocabulary may further include terms uniquely associated with anapplication. Accordingly, such terms may be identified as parameters andused to identify an application. In the example “Get me an UberX,”“UberX” is a term of a custom vocabulary for the software applicationUber and as a result Uber is identified as the software application. Inthe example “Tweet I hope the Sharks win the cup,” “Tweet” is a term ofa custom vocabulary for the software application Twitter, and as aresult Twitter is identified as the software application.

In some examples, no application configured to perform the taskaccording to the identified parameters may be accessible to the userdevice. As a result, the user device may access (e.g., download and/orinstall) an application configured to perform the task according to theidentified parameters. In some examples, the user device may identify aplurality of software applications and provide the user with a list ofsoftware applications. The user may select one or more of theapplications, and the user device may access the one or more selectedapplications.

At block 820, the intent and parameters are provided to the identifiedsoftware application. In some examples, the intent and parameters areprovided to the software application as an intent object.

In some examples, the intent and parameters may be selectively providedto the software application based on a state of the user device. As anexample, intents and parameters may be selectively provided to the userdevice based on whether the user device is in a lock state. In someexamples, an application may be allowed to receive particular intentsand parameters when the device is in a lock state. In other examples, anapplication may be allowed to receive particular intents and parameterswhen the user device is not in a lock state. Whether an application canreceive a particular intent given a particular state of the user devicemay be specified by the software application, for instance during aregistration process with an application registration service.

At block 825, the user device may receive one or more responses from thesoftware application. In some examples, the user device receives aresponse for each parameter provided to the software application. Eachof the responses may indicate, for instance, whether a parameter isvalid or whether additional user input is required. If a responseindicates that a parameter is valid, no further action is taken withrespect to the parameter.

If a response provided by the software application does not indicatethat a parameter is valid, the response may indicate that clarificationof the parameter is required. For instance, a parameter may be improper(i.e., invalid) and the software application may request additionalinput from the user. As an example, consider the user input “Send a bluecar to 1200 Main Street.” Although the user has requested a blue car,the ride-booking application (e.g., Uber, Lyft) may not allow for theselection of a blue car (e.g., blue car may not be a supported parameteror the application may determine that no blue car is currentlyavailable). Accordingly, in the event the parameter is improper (e.g.,the user has specified an invalid type of car), the application mayrequest that a proper (e.g., valid) value for the parameter (e.g., typeof car) be provided. With reference to FIG. 10A, for instance, based onthe response from the software application indicating the parameter isimproper, the user device may provide a natural-language query 1002prompting the user to select a valid parameter. In the instant example,the user device provides a natural-language query asking the user toselect a valid type of car. The natural-language query 1002 may beprovided to a user as text using a touch-sensitive display of the userdevice and/or may be provided to a user as speech using an audio outputcomponent of the user device. As illustrated, in some examples, the userdevice may provide (e.g., display) one or more candidate parameters 1004to the user for selection. In the instant example, candidate parameters1004 include “Budget,” “Black Car,” “SUV,” and “Shared.” Candidateparameters 1004 provided in this manner may be provided by the softwareapplication in some examples. The user device may select one of thecandidate parameters by providing a touch-input and/or by providing anatural-language user input to the user device, and in response, theuser device may provide the selected candidate parameter to the softwareapplication.

If a response provided by the software application does not indicatethat a parameter is valid, the response may indicate that disambiguationof the parameter is required. As a result the user device may requestinput from the user to disambiguate the parameter. In the example userinput “Call Tom,” a parameter for a contact Tom may be provided to asoftware application configured to place calls. If, in determiningcontact information (e.g., a phone number) for the contact Tom, thesoftware application determines that multiple contacts with the name“Tom” exist, the software application may request that the user specifywhich “Tom” was intended. As part of the request, the softwareapplication includes in the response a disambiguation list including aplurality of candidate parameters. The user device may provide anatural-language query asking the user to select a candidate parameter.Further, candidate parameters of the disambiguation list may bedisplayed to allow for user selection. The user may select one of thecandidate parameters, for instance, by providing a touch-input and/or byproviding a natural-language user input, and the user device may providethe selected candidate parameter to the software application.

Performing a task may require that one or more specific types ofparameters are specified by a user. Yet in some examples, anatural-language user input may omit one or more required parameters.Accordingly, the software application may optionally provide one or moreresponses indicating which, if any, required parameters were notspecified. Consider the user input “Send a car to 1200 Main Street.”Although a car is generally requested by way of the user input, theride-booking application identified based on the user input may requirea selection of a particular type of car. Accordingly, in the event theparameter is missing (e.g., the user has not specified a type of car),the application may request that a recognized value for the parameter(e.g., type of car) be provided. With reference once again to FIG. 10A,the user device may provide a natural-language query 1002 prompting theuser to specify a valid parameter. Thereafter the user may select acandidate parameter, for instance from a list of candidate parameters,and the selected parameter may be provided to the software applicationas described.

Once the software application has indicated that each parameter is validand no additional information is required, at block 830, the user devicemay confirm intent with the software application. In particular, theuser device may request a notification that, given the intent and theparameters associated with the intent, the software application cansuccessfully perform a task corresponding to the intent.

Once the software application provides a notification indicating thatthe software application can perform the task, optionally, the userdevice confirms intent with the user. For example, the user device mayprovide the natural-language query “I can get an uberX at your location.Shall I request it?” The user may confirm or reject the intent by way ofeither a touch input or a natural-language input. In some examples, thenotification provided by the software application may includeinformation to provide to the user. The information may, for instance,allow the user to make a more informed decision when prompted forconfirmation. For instance, the user device may provide thenatural-language query “I can get an uberX to your location in 9minutes. Shall I request it?”

Thereafter, the user device causes (e.g., instructs) the softwareapplication to perform the task corresponding to the intent inaccordance with the parameters.

At block 835, the user device receives a result response from thesoftware application indicating whether the software applicationperformed the task successfully. A result response indicating failure toperform a task may further indicate one or more reasons for the failure.In some examples, the user device may provide an output, such as anatural-language output, to the user indicating the one or more reasonsfor the failure.

A result response indicating success in performing a task may includeone or more response items. Each response item may be a resultdetermined (e.g., received, generated) by the software application whenperforming the task. By way of example, response items corresponding toreserving a car with a ride-booking application may include car type,license plate number, driver name, arrival time, current car location,pick-up location, destination, estimated trip time, estimated cost, andestimated trip route, service type (e.g., Uber pool vs. uberX). Asanother example, response items corresponding to initiating a workoutsession with a fitness application may include confirmation that thesession has been initiated, workout duration, type of activity, and oneor more goals.

In some examples, one or more of the response items may be provided to auser. With reference to FIG. 10B, for example, one or more of theresponse items may be provided to the user as a natural-language output1012 as a text input and/or an audio output. Response items may beprovided visually as well. For example, a map 1014 of an estimated triproute may be provided to the user. It will be appreciated that responseitems may be provided to users in any desired manner.

In some examples, the software application may specify the manner inwhich one or more response items are provided to the user. That is, thesoftware application may determine the manner in which response itemsare displayed and/or spoken to the user and the digital assistant mayprovide each of the response items accordingly.

In some examples, the software application may specify how responseitems are provided using a UI extension of the digital assistant. Theuser device may, for instance, provide the software application with aset of view controller parameters (e.g., fields that can be supplied toa view controller for display), and in response, the softwareapplication may provide a set of view controller parameter values. Theset of view controller parameter values may indicate which responseitems are to be displayed in various fields of a view controller and/orthe manner in which the response items are displayed in each field.

In other examples, the digital assistant may determine how responseitems are provided. In yet other examples, the software application isinvoked such that a user may interact with the software applicationdirectly. Invoking the application in this manner may terminate asession with the digital assistant in some examples.

In some examples, permissions of a software application are verified,for instance, prior to an intent and parameters being provided to thesoftware application. The user device may, for instance, determinewhether a software application is permitted to access data associatedwith a particular intent. The determination may be made based onpermissions configured on the user device. In the example “Get me ablack car at my location,” “location” may be a contextual parameterrequiring contextual information (e.g., location data) of the userdevice. Thus, prior to resolving the location of the user device andproviding the location as a parameter to the software application, theuser device may first determine whether the software application ispermitted to access the information. If the software application ispermitted to access the data, operation proceeds as described. If thesoftware application is not permitted to access the data, the intent andparameters are not provided to the software application and the task isnot performed.

In some examples, a natural-language input may include a plurality oftask requests. Thus, based on the natural-language input, a plurality ofintents and/or a plurality of applications may be identified. Parametersassociated with each of the intents are optionally identified as well.The natural-language input “Get me a ride to the airport and tell me myflight status,” for instance, may include both an intent to reserve acar and an intent to retrieve status of a user's flight. In someexamples, tasks corresponding to each of the intents may be performedsequentially or concurrently.

In some examples, a natural-language input may include a plurality ofrelated task requests. For instance, in some examples, a requested taskof a natural-language user input may depend on completion of anotherrequested task of the natural-language input. In the example “Email medirections to the airport,” two tasks are requested: a first task toprovide directions and a second task to email. The parameter “me”specifies a particular contact and is a parameter for the intent toemail, and the parameter “airport” is a parameter specifying adestination for the intent to provide directions. Because emailing thedirections requires that the directions first be provided, the secondtask (email) depends on the first task (provide directions).Accordingly, the task to retrieve directions is performed first.

In some examples, intents may be provided between applications. Forexample, an application may provide an intent object to anotherapplication to cause the application to perform a task. In the instantexample, both intents (provide directions and email) may be provided toa maps application to provide the requested directions. The secondintent, or the intent to email, may be provided to the maps applicationas a parameter, for instance. In accordance with the first intent, orthe intent to provide directions, the maps application may provide therequested directions. Subsequently, the maps application may provide thesecond intent to the email application, for instance as an intent objectincluding the directions as parameters. In response, the emailapplication may email the directions as requested.

As another example, a user may provide a user input “Get me a ride tothe Sharks game” while viewing a sports application (e.g., ESPNapplication). In response, the sports application, having informationpertaining to the game, may pass an intent (e.g., reserve car) and aparameter (e.g., address of game) to a ride-booking application. Theintent and parameter may be provided as an intent object in someexamples.

As yet another example, a user may provide a user input “Pay my brother$5.00,” while using a ride-booking application. In response, theride-booking application may pass an intent (e.g., pay) and a parameter($5.00) to a payment application (e.g., PayPal, Venmo, online paymentservice). As described, the intent and parameter may be provided as anintent object in some examples.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of a process for operating a digitalassistant in accordance with some embodiments. The process 900 may, forinstance, be used to implement at least a portion of process 800 of FIG.8, including, but not limited to, block 815 and/or block 820 of FIG. 8.Process 900 is performed, for example, using one or more electronicdevices (e.g., devices 104, 108, 200, 400, or 600) implementing adigital assistant. In some examples, the process 900 is performed usinga client-server system (e.g., system 100), and the blocks of the process900 can be divided up in any manner between the server (e.g., DA server106) and a client device. Thus, while portions of the process 900 aredescribed herein as being performed by particular devices of aclient-server system, it will be appreciated that the process 900 is notso limited. In other examples, the process 900 is performed using only aclient device (e.g., user device 104). In process 900, some blocks are,optionally, combined, the order of some blocks is, optionally, changed,and some blocks are, optionally, omitted. In some examples, additionalsteps may be performed in combination with the process 900.

At block 905, a natural-language user input is received by a userdevice, such as the user device 104 of FIG. 1. As described, thenatural-language input may include a request for the user device, and/oranother device, to perform a task, and may further specify one or moreparameters for the requested task.

At block 910, an intent and, optionally, one or more parametersassociated with the intent, are identified. The intent and parametersmay be derived from the natural-language user input. As previouslydescribed, intents may correspond to any type of tasks performed by auser device and, in particular, may correspond to tasks performed by oneor more applications of a user device. Parameters associated with theintent may identify portions of the natural-language input that specifya manner in which a task corresponding to the intent is to be performed.In the example, “Get me a ride to the airport,” the intent correspondsto a task to reserve a car and “airport” is a parameter specifying adestination. Given that the intent of the user is to reserve a car, thelocation of the user may be a parameter (e.g., inferred parameter) aswell.

At block 915, a determination is made as to whether a task correspondingto the intent can be fulfilled. In some examples, the determination mayinclude determining whether an application configured to perform thetask in accordance with the parameters is accessible to the user device.In the instant example, a determination is made as to whether the userdevice can access an application configured to reserve a car at alocation of the user device. As described, accessible applications arethose locally stored on the user device as well as those remotelyaccessible by the user device.

In accordance with a determination that the task corresponding to theintent can be fulfilled, at block 920, the intent and the parameter areprovided to a software application. For example, if, at block 915, it isdetermined that the user device can access a software applicationconfigured to perform the requested task according to any identifiedparameters, the intent and parameters are provided to the application toperform the task. In the instant example, this includes determining thata software application configured to reserve a car at a location of theuser device is accessible to the user device. For instance, theride-booking application Lyft may be installed on the user device andmay be used to reserve a car in accordance with examples describedherein.

In accordance with a determination that the task corresponding to theintent cannot be fulfilled, at block 925, a list of one or more softwareapplications is provided. The list of one or more software applicationsmay, for instance, include one or more software applications configuredto perform the task associated with the intent according to anyidentified parameters. In some examples, one or more softwareapplication of the list may be identified, for instance, based on one ormore domains associated with the intent (recall that applications may beregistered with one or more domains). With reference to FIG. 10C, oncethe list of software applications (e.g., ride-booking applications) hasbeen determined, the user device may provide the list to the user. Asillustrated, providing the list may include providing a natural-languageinput 1022 requesting the user select an application from the list ofone or more software applications. In some examples, the list isgenerated by the user device. In other examples, the list of softwareapplications is generated by a server and provided to the user device,which may in turn provide the list to a user, as described.

At block 930, the user device receives a user input indicative of aselection of one or more software applications of the list of one ormore software applications. The user input may be a touch input on atouch-sensitive display of the user device and/or may be anatural-language user input.

At block 935, the intent and parameters are provided to the softwareapplication selected by the user. In some examples, providing the intentand parameters includes downloading and/or installing the softwareapplication such that the user device may access the softwareapplication locally. In other examples, this includes remotely accessingthe selected application.

As described, in response to the intent and parameters, the softwareapplication may provide one or more responses. Once parameters have beenvalidated, the user device may confirm intent with the softwareapplication and cause the software application to perform the task. Theuser device may thereafter receive result responses and, optionally,provide one or more response items of the result response to the user.

Reference is made herein to providing a user of a user device withnatural-language outputs and/or natural language queries. In someexamples, the manner in which natural-language outputs and queries areprovided to a user may depend on a type or state of the user device. If,for instance, the user device is a mobile phone, the user device mayprovide a query using both text and audio. If, on the other hand, theuser device is a speaker, the user device may provide the query usingonly audio. As another example, if the user device is a mobile phone notpaired with headphones, the user device may provide a query using textand/or a relatively short natural-language query. If the user device ispaired with headphones, the user device may provide the query using onlya relatively long natural-language query.

FIGS. 10D-F illustrate exemplary data flows of digital assistant systemsin accordance with some embodiments. Data flows of FIGS. 10D-F may beimplemented using one or more of processes 800, 900 in some examples.FIG. 10D illustrates an exemplary data flow of a digital assistantsystem 1030 in accordance with some embodiments. In particular, FIG. 10Dillustrates a data flow for an application registration process and adata flow for performance of a task. Data flows 1031-1041 may beassociated with the application registration process (illustrated inFIG. 10D as hashed lines) and data flows 1043-1051 may be associatedwith performance of a task (illustrated in FIG. 10D as solid lines).

Generally, data flows associated with the application registrationprocess are directed to registration of an application with anapplication registration service (e.g., validation service) by whichapplications, and custom vocabulary corresponding thereto, can beaccessed and/or employed by a digital assistant to perform tasks.

In operation, at data flow 1031, an application is submitted to anapplication review module 1032. Both a language model corresponding tothe application and intents of the application may be submitted as well.The language model may include custom vocabulary for the application. Inturn, at data flow 1033, the application review module 1032 may providethe application, custom vocabulary, and/or intents of the application tothe validation service 1034. The validation service 1034 may determinewhether to validate the application, for instance, based on whether theapplication is operable with a digital assistant. This may include forinstance, ensuring that any intents of the application correspond to oneor more domains of the application. For instance, the validation servicemay reject a messaging application associated with intents to reservecars because the domain and intents mismatch. The validation service1034, at data flow 1035, may provide a validation response indicatingwhether the application is valid.

If the validation service 1034 indicates that the application is valid,the application review module 1032 provides the application (asverified) to the application store 1036. Generally, the application maybe downloaded and/or accessed at the application store 1036 by the userdevice 1040 via the DA server 1038, as indicated by the data flow 1039.The user device 1040 may be the user device 104 of FIG. 1 and the DAserver 1038 may be the DA server 106 of FIG. 1 in some examples. Thismay, for instance, result in an application list (e.g., info.plist) ofthe user device 1040 being updated and/or synchronized with the DAserver 1038. At data flow 1041, the validation service may providecustom vocabulary (e.g., runtime vocabulary) of the application to theDA server 1038 to assist in parsing natural-language inputs, asdescribed.

Generally, data flows associated with performance of a task are directedto providing an intent and, optionally, one or more parameters to anapplication for performing a task corresponding to the intent.

In operation, at data flow 1043, the user device 1040 may provide anatural-language input to the DA server 1038. The natural-language inputmay be provided by the digital assistant 1042 of the user device 1040 insome examples. Based on the natural-language input, the DA server 1038may identify one or more tasks requested in the natural-language inputand one or more parameters associated with the intent. Additionally, theDA server 1038 may identify an application for performing a task withthe intent. A name (or other form of identifier) of the identifiedapplication 1044 may be a parameter of the intent in some examples. Atdata flow 1045, the DA server 1038 thereafter provides the intent,parameters, and an identification of the identified application 1044 tothe user device 1040 (e.g., the digital assistant 1042 of the userdevice 1040). The intent and parameters may be provided to the userdevice 1040 as an intent object in some examples.

In response, the digital assistant determines whether the identifiedapplication 1044 is permitted to access information associated with theidentified parameters. For instance, if a parameter is a location of theuser device 1040, the digital assistant queries data permissions 1046 todetermine if the application 1044 is permitted to access location data.

In the event that the application is permitted to access data for eachof the parameters, the user device (e.g., the digital assistant 1042 ofthe user device) provides the intent to the application. As illustrated,the application may reside on the user device 1040. In other examples,the application may reside on one or more other devices, and the intentmay be transmitted to the application over one or more networks. Asdescribed, the application 1044 may thereafter request input from a userof the user device 1040 if the application determines that one or moreparameters are missing, improper, and/or ambiguous. In some examples,queries for user input may be provided as natural-language queriesgenerated by the DA server 1038. Accordingly, at data flow 1051, theuser device 1040 may request, and thereafter, receive, one or morenatural-language queries. Once all parameters have been resolved, theapplication 1044 may perform a task corresponding to the intent andprovide a result response indicating whether the task was successfullyperformed.

One or more of the data flows of FIG. 10D are implemented (e.g.,generated), for example, using one or more electronic devices (e.g.,devices 104, 108, 200, 400, or 600) implementing a digital assistant. Inparticular, data flows provided between DA server 1038 and the digitalassistant 1042 of the user device 1040 are illustrated as relying on aclient-server architecture. In other examples, the DA server 1038 may beimplemented as a process and/or service on the user device 1040.Accordingly, data flows exchanged between the DA server 1038 and thedigital assistant 1042 may be exchanged solely on the user device 1040in some examples.

FIG. 10E illustrates an exemplary data flow of a digital assistantsystem 1060 in accordance with some embodiments. In particular, FIG. 10Eillustrates an exemplary data flow for an application registrationprocess and may be used to implement the application registrationprocess as set forth in FIG. 10D. Further, several elements of FIG. 10Ecorrespond to elements of FIG. 10D, respectively, and have been providedwith the same reference numerals. In the interest of brevity, anexplanation of their function and operation will not be repeated.

At data flow 1065, validated vocabulary is provided from validationservice 1034 to global application vocabulary store 1060. Generally, theglobal application vocabulary store may store language models and/orvocabulary for any number and/or versions of software applications. Atdata flows 1061 and 1063, speech training module 1062 andnatural-language training module 1064 are trained to recognize andnatural language process the application specific vocabulary suppliedwith the validated application. Based on the data, the globalapplication vocabulary store may generate and/or train one or morelanguage models that allow the digital assistant to recognize andprocess utterances containing the application specific vocabulary.

During operation of a user device, such as the user device 1040 of FIG.10D, the runtime-specific global application vocabulary store mayreceive vocabulary and/or language models for one or more applicationsof the user device from the global application vocabulary store 1060.The vocabulary may be specific to a user ID of a user of the userdevice, and/or may be specific to versions of applications and/oroperating systems of the user device. Based on the vocabulary, one ormore terms of natural-language inputs may be identified, for instance,as parameters.

In accordance with some embodiments, FIG. 11 shows a functional blockdiagram of an electronic device 1100 configured in accordance with theprinciples of the various described embodiments, including thosedescribed with reference to FIG. 8. The functional blocks of the deviceare, optionally, implemented by hardware, software, or a combination ofhardware and software to carry out the principles of the variousdescribed embodiments. It is understood by persons of skill in the artthat the functional blocks described in FIG. 11 are, optionally,combined or separated into sub-blocks to implement the principles of thevarious described embodiments. Therefore, the description hereinoptionally supports any possible combination or separation or furtherdefinition of the functional blocks described herein.

As shown in FIG. 11, an electronic device 1100 includes atouch-sensitive display unit 1102 and a processing unit 1108 optionallycoupled to touch-sensitive display unit 1102. In some embodiments, theprocessing unit 1108 includes a receiving unit 1110, an identifying unit1112, a providing unit 1114, and optionally, an outputting unit 1116, aspeaking unit 1118, a display enabling unit 1120, a determining unit1122, a requesting unit 1124, an accessing unit 1126, and a causing unit1128.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is configured to receive(e.g., with the receiving unit 1110) a natural-language user input(e.g., block 805 of FIG. 8); identify (e.g., with identifying unit1112), with the one or more processors, an intent object of a set ofintent objects and a parameter associated with the intent object, wherethe intent object and the parameter are derived from thenatural-language user input (e.g., block 810 of FIG. 8); identify (e.g.,with identifying unit 1112) a software application associated with theintent object of the set of intent objects (e.g., block 815 of FIG. 8);and provide (e.g., with the providing unit 1114) the intent object andthe parameter to the software application (e.g., block 820 of FIG. 8).

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured toreceive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110) a response from thesoftware application, wherein the response is indicative of whether theparameter is valid (e.g., block 825 of FIG. 8).

In some examples, receiving (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110) aresponse from the software application comprises receiving (e.g., withthe receiving unit 1110), from the software application, adisambiguation list associated with the parameter, where thedisambiguation list includes a plurality of candidate parameters.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured tooutput (e.g., with the outputting unit 1116) the disambiguation list;receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110) a user input indicative ofa selection of a candidate parameter value of the disambiguation list;and provide (e.g., with the providing unit 1114) the selected candidateparameter value of the disambiguation list to the software application.

In some examples, the natural-language user input is a firstnatural-language input, the parameter is a first parameter, and theprocessing unit 1108 is further configured to receive (e.g., with thereceiving unit 1110), from the software application, a request for asecond parameter associated with the intent object; provide (e.g., withthe providing unit 1114) a natural-language query based on the request;receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110) a second natural-languageuser input; identify (e.g., with identifying unit 1112) the secondparameter, where the second parameter is derived from the secondnatural-language user input; and provide (e.g., with the providing unit1114) the second parameter to the software application.

In some examples, the electronic device further comprises an audiooutput component, and providing the natural-language query comprisesspeaking (e.g., with the speaking unit 1118), via speech synthesis, thenatural-language query through the audio output component.

In some examples, providing the natural-language query comprisesproviding (e.g., with the providing unit 1114) the natural-languagequery based on a type of the electronic device, a state of theelectronic device, or a combination thereof.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured to,after providing the intent object and the parameter to the softwareapplication, receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110), from thesoftware application, a result response associated with the intentobject (e.g., block 835 of FIG. 8).

In some examples, receiving a result response comprises receiving (e.g.,with the receiving unit 1110), from the software application, a set ofresponse items associated with the intent object, and outputting (e.g.,with the outputting unit 1116) the set of response items.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured toprovide (e.g., with the providing unit 1114), to the softwareapplication, a set of view controller parameters; and receive (e.g.,with the receiving unit 1110), from the software application, a set ofview controller parameter values corresponding to the set of viewcontroller parameters, where outputting the set of response itemscomprises enabling display (e.g., with the display enabling unit 1120)of the set of response items in a user interface based on the receivedview controller parameter values.

In some examples, each intent object of the set of intent objects isassociated with the software application.

In some examples, the intent object is a first intent object and whereinthe parameter is associated with the first intent object and notassociated with a second intent object.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured todetermine (e.g., with the determining unit 1122) whether the electronicdevice is in a lock state; and in accordance with a determination thatthe device is in the lock state, determine (e.g., with the determiningunit 1122) whether the intent object is allowed to be provided to thesoftware application while the electronic device is in the lock state,where the intent object and the parameter value are provided to thesoftware application only in accordance with a determination that theintent object is allowed to be provided to the software applicationwhile the electronic device is in the lock state.

In some examples, the parameter is derived from the natural-languageuser input by analyzing the natural-language user input using each of aplurality of detectors.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured todetermine (e.g., with the determining unit 1122) a user context of theelectronic device, where the parameter is based at least in part on theuser context.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured torequest (e.g., with the requesting unit 1124) a confirmation of theparameter; and receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110) a user inputcorresponding to the confirmation of the parameter, where the parameteris provided to the software application in response to receiving theuser input.

In some examples, identifying the software application comprisesdetermining (e.g., with the determining unit 1122) whether the softwareapplication resides on the electronic device; and in accordance with adetermination that the software application does not reside on theelectronic device, determining (e.g., with the determining unit 1122)whether the software application resides on an external device that isin communication with the electronic device. In some examples, providingthe intent object and the parameter to the software applicationcomprises, in accordance with a determination that the softwareapplication resides on an external device that is in communication withthe electronic device, providing (e.g., with the providing unit 1114)the intent object and the parameter to the software application byproviding the intent object and the parameter to the external device.

In some examples, identifying the software application comprisesdetermining (e.g., with the determining unit 1122) whether the softwareapplication resides on the electronic device; in accordance with adetermination that the software application does not reside on theelectronic device, identifying (e.g., with the identifying unit 1112) aset of software applications associated with the intent object; enablingdisplay (e.g., with the display enabling unit 1120) of, in a userinterface, the set of software applications associated with the intentobject; receiving (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110) a user inputincluding a selection of one or more software applications of the set ofsoftware applications associated with the intent object; and accessing(e.g., with the accessing unit 1126) the selected one or more softwareapplications of the set of software applications associated with theintent object.

In some examples, identifying a software application associated with theintent object of the set of intent objects comprises identifying (e.g.,with the identifying unit 1112) the software application based on theparameter.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured toidentify (e.g., with the identifying unit 1112), based on thenatural-language user input, a third intent object from the set ofintent objects; identify (e.g., with the identifying unit 1112), basedon the identified third intent object, a second software application;provide (e.g., with the providing unit 1114) the third intent object andat least one response item to the second software application; andreceive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110), from the second softwareapplication, a second response item associated with the third intentobject.

In some examples, the software application is a first softwareapplication, and providing the intent object and the parameter to thesoftware application comprises causing (e.g., with the causing unit1128) a third software application to provide the intent object and theparameter to the first software application.

In some examples, receiving a natural-language user input comprisesreceiving (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110) a natural-language userinput including an application-specific term; and where identifying asoftware application associated with the intent object of the set ofintent objects comprises identifying (e.g., with the identifying unit1112) the software application based on the application-specific term.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured toreceive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1110) a command including anidentification of the software application; and in response to thecommand, determine (e.g., with the determining unit 1122) whether thesoftware application is permitted to access data associated with theintent object.

In some examples, the processing unit 1108 is further configured tocause (e.g., with the causing unit 1128) the software application toperform a task associated with the intent object based on the parameter.

The operation described above with respect to FIG. 8 is, optionally,implemented by components depicted in FIGS. 1, 2A, 4, 6A-B, 7A, and 11.For example, receiving operations 805, 825, and 835; identifyingoperations 810 and 815, providing operation 820, and confirmingoperation 830 are optionally implemented by processor(s) 120. It wouldbe clear to a person of ordinary skill in the art how other processescan be implemented based on the components depicted in FIGS. 1, 2A, 4,6A-B, 7A, and 11.

It is understood by persons of skill in the art that the functionalblocks described in FIG. 11 are, optionally, combined or separated intosub-blocks to implement the principles of the various describedembodiments. Therefore, the description herein optionally supports anypossible combination or separation or further definition of thefunctional blocks described herein. For example, processing unit 1108can have an associated “controller” unit that is operatively coupledwith processing unit 1108 to enable operation. This controller unit isnot separately illustrated in FIG. 11 but is understood to be within thegrasp of one of ordinary skill in the art who is designing a devicehaving a processing unit 1108, such as device 1100. As another example,one or more units, such as the receiving unit 1110, may be hardwareunits outside of processing unit 1108 in some embodiments. Thedescription herein thus optionally supports combination, separation,and/or further definition of the functional blocks described herein.

In accordance with some embodiments, FIG. 12 shows a functional blockdiagram of an electronic device 1200 configured in accordance with theprinciples of the various described embodiments, including thosedescribed with reference to FIG. 8. The functional blocks of the deviceare, optionally, implemented by hardware, software, or a combination ofhardware and software to carry out the principles of the variousdescribed embodiments. It is understood by persons of skill in the artthat the functional blocks described in FIG. 12 are, optionally,combined or separated into sub-blocks to implement the principles of thevarious described embodiments. Therefore, the description hereinoptionally supports any possible combination or separation or furtherdefinition of the functional blocks described herein.

As shown in FIG. 12, one or more electronic devices 1200 include one ormore processing units 1208. In some embodiments, the one or moreprocessing units 1208 include a receiving unit 1210, a determining unit1212, an identifying unit 1214, and a providing unit 1216.

In some examples, the one or more processing units 1208 is configured toreceive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1210) a natural-language userinput (e.g., block 805 of FIG. 8); determine (e.g., with the determiningunit 1212), based on the natural-language user input, an intent objectof a set of intent objects and a parameter associated with the intentobject (e.g., block 810 of FIG. 8); identify (e.g., with the identifyingunit 1214) a software application based on at least one of the intentobject or the parameter (e.g., block 815 of FIG. 8); and provide (e.g.,with the providing unit 1216) the intent object and the parameter to thesoftware application (e.g., block 820 of FIG. 8).

In some examples, determining, based on the natural-language user input,an intent object of a set of intent objects and a parameter associatedwith the intent object comprises determining (e.g., with the determiningunit 1212), with a first electronic device of the one or more electronicdevices 1200, the intent object of the set of intent objects and theparameter associated with the intent object; and where providing theintent object and the parameter to the software application comprisesproviding (e.g., with the providing unit 1216), with a second electronicdevice of the one or more electronic devices 1200, the intent object andthe parameter to the software application.

In some examples, the one or more processing units 1208 are configuredto provide (e.g., with the providing unit 1216), with the firstelectronic device of the one or more electronic devices 1200, a commandto the second electronic device of the one or more electronic devices1200; and in response to the command, determine (e.g., with thedetermining unit 1212), with the second electronic device, whether thesoftware application is permitted to access data associated with theintent object.

In some examples, the one or more processing units 1208 are configuredto receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1210) a response from thesoftware application, where the response is indicative of whether theparameter is valid (e.g., block 825 of FIG. 8).

In some examples, the parameter is indicative of the softwareapplication.

In some examples, the one or more processing units 1208 are configuredto identify (e.g., with the identifying unit 1214) the softwareapplication based on the natural-language user input; and determine(e.g., with the determining unit 1212) whether the intent object of theset of intent objects corresponds to a registered intent object of thesoftware application; where the intent object and the parameter aredetermined only in accordance with a determination that the intentobject corresponds to a registered intent object of the softwareapplication.

In some examples, the parameter is a first parameter, and the one ormore processing units are configured to determine (e.g., with thedetermining unit 1212), based on the natural-language user input, asecond parameter; and provide (e.g., with the providing unit 1216) thesecond parameter to the software application.

In some examples, the response is a first response, and the one or moreprocessing units are configured to receive (e.g., with the receivingunit 1210) a second response from the software application, where thesecond response is indicative of whether the second parameter is valid.

The operation described above with respect to FIG. 8 is, optionally,implemented by components depicted in FIGS. 1, 2A, 4, 6A-B, 7A, and 12.For example, receiving operations 805, 825, and 835; identifyingoperations 810 and 815, providing operation 820, and confirmingoperation 830 are optionally implemented by processor(s) 120. It wouldbe clear to a person of ordinary skill in the art how other processescan be implemented based on the components depicted in FIGS. 1, 2A, 4,6A-B, 7A, and 12.

It is understood by persons of skill in the art that the functionalblocks described in FIG. 12 are, optionally, combined or separated intosub-blocks to implement the principles of the various describedembodiments. Therefore, the description herein optionally supports anypossible combination or separation or further definition of thefunctional blocks described herein. For example, the one or moreprocessing units 1208 can have an associated “controller” unit that isoperatively coupled with at least one of the one or more processingunits 1208 to enable operation. This controller unit is not separatelyillustrated in FIG. 12 but is understood to be within the grasp of oneof ordinary skill in the art who is designing a device having one ormore processing units 1208, such as device 1200. As another example, oneor more units, such as the receiving unit 1210, may be hardware unitsoutside of the one or more processing units 1208 in some embodiments.The description herein thus optionally supports combination, separation,and/or further definition of the functional blocks described herein.

In accordance with some embodiments, FIG. 13 shows a functional blockdiagram of an electronic device 1300 configured in accordance with theprinciples of the various described embodiments, including thosedescribed with reference to FIG. 9. The functional blocks of the deviceare, optionally, implemented by hardware, software, or a combination ofhardware and software to carry out the principles of the variousdescribed embodiments. It is understood by persons of skill in the artthat the functional blocks described in FIG. 13 are, optionally,combined or separated into sub-blocks to implement the principles of thevarious described embodiments. Therefore, the description hereinoptionally supports any possible combination or separation or furtherdefinition of the functional blocks described herein.

As shown in FIG. 13, one or more electronic devices 1300 include one ormore processing units 1308. In some embodiments, the one or moreprocessing units 1308 include a receiving unit 1310, an identifying unit1312, a determining unit 1314, a providing unit 1316, and optionally, acausing unit 1318.

In some examples, the one or more processing units 1308 are configuredto receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1310) a natural-language userinput (e.g., block 905 of FIG. 9); identify (e.g., with the identifyingunit 1312), based on the natural-language user input, an intent objectof a set of an intent objects and a parameter associated with the intentobject (e.g., block 910 of FIG. 9); determine (e.g., with thedetermining unit 1314), based on at least one of the intent object orthe parameter, whether a task corresponding to the intent object can befulfilled (e.g., block 915 of FIG. 9); in accordance with adetermination that the task corresponding to the intent object can befulfilled, provide (e.g., with the providing unit 1316) the intentobject and the parameter to a software application associated with theintent object (e.g., block 920 of FIG. 9); and in accordance with adetermination that the task corresponding to the intent object cannot befulfilled, provide (e.g., with the providing unit 1316) a list of one ormore software applications associated with the intent object (e.g.,block 925 of FIG. 9).

In some examples, the one or more processing units 1308 are configuredto, after providing a list of one or more software applicationsassociated with the intent object, receive (e.g., with the receivingunit 1310) a user input indicative of a selection of a softwareapplication of the list of one or more software applications (e.g.,block 930 of FIG. 9); and in response to the user input, provide (e.g.,with the providing unit 1316) the intent object of the set of intentobjects to the selected software application (e.g., block 935 of FIG.9).

In some examples, the one or more processing units 1308 are configuredto, in response to the user input, provide (e.g., with the providingunit 1316) the parameter to the selected software application.

In some examples, the one or more processing units 1308 are configuredto receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1310) a response from theselected software application, and the response is indicative of whetherthe parameter is valid.

In some examples, the one or more processing units 1308 are configuredto cause (e.g., with the causing unit 1318) the selected softwareapplication to perform the task corresponding to the intent object, andafter providing the intent object to the selected software application,receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1310), from the selected softwareapplication, a result response associated with the intent object.

The operation described above with respect to FIG. 9 is, optionally,implemented by components depicted in FIGS. 1, 2A, 4, 6A-B, 7A, and 13.For example, determining operation 905, providing operations 910, 915,and 925; and receiving operation 920, are optionally implemented byprocessor(s) 120. It would be clear to a person of ordinary skill in theart how other processes can be implemented based on the componentsdepicted in FIGS. 1, 2A, 4, 6A-B, 7A, and 13.

It is understood by persons of skill in the art that the functionalblocks described in FIG. 13 are, optionally, combined or separated intosub-blocks to implement the principles of the various describedembodiments. Therefore, the description herein optionally supports anypossible combination or separation or further definition of thefunctional blocks described herein. For example, the one or moreprocessing units 1308 can have an associated “controller” unit that isoperatively coupled with at least one of the one or more processingunits 1308 to enable operation. This controller unit is not separatelyillustrated in FIG. 13 but is understood to be within the grasp of oneof ordinary skill in the art who is designing a device having one ormore processing units 1308, such as device 1300. As another example, oneor more units, such as the receiving unit 1310, may be hardware unitsoutside of the one or more processing units 1308 in some embodiments.The description herein thus optionally supports combination, separation,and/or further definition of the functional blocks described herein.

In accordance with some embodiments, FIG. 14 shows a functional blockdiagram of an electronic device 1400 configured in accordance with theprinciples of the various described embodiments, including thosedescribed with reference to FIG. 9. The functional blocks of the deviceare, optionally, implemented by hardware, software, or a combination ofhardware and software to carry out the principles of the variousdescribed embodiments. It is understood by persons of skill in the artthat the functional blocks described in FIG. 14 are, optionally,combined or separated into sub-blocks to implement the principles of thevarious described embodiments. Therefore, the description hereinoptionally supports any possible combination or separation or furtherdefinition of the functional blocks described herein.

As shown in FIG. 14, an electronic device 1400 includes atouch-sensitive display unit 1402 and a processing unit 1408 optionallycoupled to touch-sensitive display unit 1402. In some embodiments, theprocessing unit 1402 includes a receiving unit 1410, a providing unit1412, an obtaining unit 1414, a display enabling unit 1416, andoptionally, an identifying unit 1418 and a causing unit 1420.

In some examples, the processing unit 1408 is configured to receive(e.g., with the receiving unit 1410) a natural-language user input,where the natural-language user input is indicative of an intent objectof a set of intent objects (e.g., block 905 of FIG. 9); provide (e.g.,with the providing unit 1412) the natural-language user input to asecond electronic device; receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1410),from the second electronic device, an indication that a softwareapplication associated with the intent object is not located on thefirst electronic device (e.g., block 925 of FIG. 9); responsive to thenotification, obtain (e.g., with the obtaining unit 1414) the list ofapplications associated with the intent object; enable display (e.g.,with the display enabling unit 1416) of, with a touch-sensitive displayof the first electronic device, the list of applications associated withthe intent object in a user interface; receive (e.g., with the receivingunit 1410) a user input indicative of a selection of an application ofthe list of applications (e.g., block 930 of FIG. 9); and provide (e.g.,with the providing unit 1412) the intent object of the set of intentobjects to the application (e.g., block 935 of FIG. 9).

In some examples, the processing unit 1408 is further configured toidentify (e.g., with the identifying unit 1418) the intent object of theset of intent objects.

In some examples, the processing unit 1408 is further configured toidentify (e.g., with the identifying unit 1418) a parameter associatedwith the intent object of the set of intent objects; and provide (e.g.,with the providing unit 1412) the parameter to the application.

In some examples, the processing unit 1408 is further configured toreceive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1410) a response from theapplication, and the response is indicative of whether the parameter isvalid.

In some examples, the processing unit 1408 is further configured tocause (e.g., with the causing unit 1420) the application to perform atask associated with the intent object; and after providing the intentobject to the application, receive (e.g., with the receiving unit 1410),from the application, a result response associated with the intentobject.

The operation described above with respect to FIG. 9 is, optionally,implemented by components depicted in FIGS. 1, 2A, 4, 6A-B, 7A, and 14.For example, determining operation 905, providing operations 910, 915,and 925; and receiving operation 920 are optionally implemented byprocessor(s) 120. It would be clear to a person of ordinary skill in theart how other processes can be implemented based on the componentsdepicted in FIGS. 1, 2A, 4, 6A-B, 7A, and 14.

It is understood by persons of skill in the art that the functionalblocks described in FIG. 14 are, optionally, combined or separated intosub-blocks to implement the principles of the various describedembodiments. Therefore, the description herein optionally supports anypossible combination or separation or further definition of thefunctional blocks described herein. For example, processing unit 1408can have an associated “controller” unit that is operatively coupledwith processing unit 1408 to enable operation. This controller unit isnot separately illustrated in FIG. 14 but is understood to be within thegrasp of one of ordinary skill in the art who is designing a devicehaving a processing unit 1408, such as device 1400. As another example,one or more units, such as the receiving unit 1410, may be hardwareunits outside of processing unit 1408 in some embodiments. Thedescription herein thus optionally supports combination, separation,and/or further definition of the functional blocks described herein.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the techniques and their practical applications. Othersskilled in the art are thereby enabled to best utilize the techniquesand various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

Although the disclosure and examples have been fully described withreference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that variouschanges and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in theart. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as beingincluded within the scope of the disclosure and examples as defined bythe claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumstoring one or more programs, the one or more programs comprisinginstructions, which when executed by one or more processors of anelectronic device, cause the electronic device to: receive anatural-language user input; identify, with the one or more processors,a first intent object of a set of intent objects and a first parameterassociated with the first intent object, wherein the first intent objectis derived from the natural-language user input; identify a firstsoftware application associated with the first intent object of the setof intent objects; and cause a second software application to providethe first intent object and the first parameter to the first softwareapplication.
 2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumaccording to claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause theelectronic device to: receive a response from the first softwareapplication, wherein the response is indicative of whether the firstparameter is valid.
 3. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium according to claim 2, wherein receiving a response from the firstsoftware application comprises: receiving, from the first softwareapplication, a disambiguation list associated with the first parameter,wherein the disambiguation list includes a plurality of candidateparameters.
 4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumaccording to claim 3, wherein the instructions further cause theelectronic device to: output the disambiguation list; receive a userinput indicative of a selection of a candidate parameter value of thedisambiguation list; and provide the selected candidate parameter valueof the disambiguation list to the first software application.
 5. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 1,wherein the natural-language user input is a first natural-languageinput, and wherein the instructions further cause the electronic deviceto: receive, from the first software application, a request for a secondparameter associated with the first intent object; provide anatural-language query based on the request; receive a secondnatural-language user input; identify the second parameter, wherein thesecond parameter is derived from the second natural-language user input;and provide the second parameter to the first software application. 6.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim5, wherein the electronic device further comprises an audio outputcomponent, and wherein providing the natural-language query comprisesspeaking, via speech synthesis, the natural-language query through theaudio output component.
 7. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium according to claim 5, wherein providing the natural-languagequery comprises providing the natural-language query based on a type ofthe electronic device, a state of the electronic device, or acombination thereof.
 8. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium according to claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause theelectronic device to: after providing the first intent object and thefirst parameter to the first software application, receive, from thefirst software application, a result response associated with the firstintent object.
 9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumaccording to claim 8, wherein receiving a result response comprises:receiving, from the first software application, a set of response itemsassociated with the first intent object; and outputting the set ofresponse items.
 10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumaccording to claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause theelectronic device to: provide, to the first software application, a setof view controller parameters; and receive, from the first softwareapplication, a set of view controller parameter values corresponding tothe set of view controller parameters, wherein outputting the set ofresponse items comprises displaying the set of response items in a userinterface based on the received view controller parameter values. 11.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim1, wherein each intent object of the set of intent objects is associatedwith the first software application.
 12. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the firstparameter is associated with the first intent object and not associatedwith a second intent object.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium according to claim 1, wherein the instructions furthercause the electronic device to: determine whether the electronic deviceis in a lock state; and in accordance with a determination that theelectronic device is in the lock state, determine whether the firstintent object is allowed to be provided to the first softwareapplication while the electronic device is in the lock state, whereinthe first intent object and the first parameter are provided to thefirst software application only in accordance with a determination thatthe first intent object is allowed to be provided to the first softwareapplication while the electronic device is in a lock state.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 1,wherein the first parameter is derived from the natural-language userinput by analyzing the natural-language user input using each of aplurality of detectors.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium according to claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause theelectronic device to: determine a user context of the electronic device;wherein the first parameter is based at least in part on the usercontext.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumaccording to claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause theelectronic device to: requesting a confirmation of the first parameter;and receiving a user input corresponding to the confirmation of thefirst parameter, wherein the first parameter is provided to the firstsoftware application in response to receiving the user input.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 1,wherein identifying the first software application comprises:determining whether the first software application resides on theelectronic device; in accordance with a determination that the firstsoftware application does not reside on the electronic device,determining whether the first software application resides on anexternal device that is in communication with the electronic device; andwherein providing the first intent object and the first parameter to thefirst software application comprises: in accordance with a determinationthat the first software application resides on an external device thatis in communication with the electronic device: providing the firstintent object and the first parameter to the first software applicationby providing the first intent object and the first parameter to theexternal device.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumaccording to claim 1, wherein identifying the first software applicationcomprises: determining whether the first software application resides onthe electronic device; in accordance with a determination that the firstsoftware application does not reside on the electronic device:identifying a set of software applications associated with the firstintent object; displaying, in a user interface, the set of softwareapplications associated with the first intent object; receiving a userinput including a selection of one or more software applications of theset of software applications associated with the first intent object;and accessing the selected one or more software applications of the setof software applications associated with the first intent object. 19.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim1, wherein identifying a software application associated with the intentobject of the set of intent objects comprises identifying the softwareapplication based on the first parameter.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium according to claim 1, wherein theinstructions further cause the electronic device to: identify, based onthe natural-language user input, a third intent object from the set ofintent objects; identify, based on the identified third intent object, athird software application; provide the third intent object and at leastone response item to the third software application; and receive, fromthe third software application, a second response item associated withthe third intent object.
 21. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium according to claim 1, wherein receiving thenatural-language user input comprises: receiving a natural-language userinput including an application-specific term; and wherein identifyingthe first software application associated with the first intent objectof the set of intent objects comprises: identifying the first softwareapplication based on the application-specific term.
 22. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 1,wherein the instructions further cause the electronic device to:receiving a command including an identification of the first softwareapplication; and in response to the command, determining whether thefirst software application is permitted to access data associated withthe first intent object.
 23. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium according to claim 1, wherein the instructions furthercause the electronic device to: causing the first software applicationto perform a task associated with the first intent object based on thefirst parameter.
 24. A method, comprising: at a first electronic devicehaving one or more processors: receiving a natural-language user input;identifying, with the one or more processors, a first intent object of aset of intent objects and a first parameter associated with the firstintent object, wherein the first intent object is derived from thenatural-language user input; identifying a first software applicationassociated with the first intent object of the set of intent objects;and causing a second software application to provide the first intentobject and the first parameter to the first software application.
 25. Anelectronic device, comprising: one or more processors; a memory; and oneor more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in thememory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, theone or more programs including instructions for: receiving anatural-language user input; identifying, with the one or moreprocessors, a first intent object of a set of intent objects and a firstparameter associated with the first intent object, wherein the firstintent object is derived from the natural-language user input;identifying a first software application associated with the firstintent object of the set of intent objects; and causing a secondsoftware application to provide the first intent object and the firstparameter to the first software application.